433 


J 


THE 


IT 


BAO-PiN. 


FOR 


THE  DOUGH-FACES. 


BY  ONE  OF  THEM. 


,Lft 


BURLINGTON,  VERMONT. 

PUBLISHED  BY  C.  GOODRICH. 
1854. 


Entered  according  to  act  of  Congress  in  the  year  K-54  by 

CHAUNCEY  GOODRICH, 
in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  of  Vermont 


•^r 


THE  BAKE-PAN. 


"  See  how  bis  bright  Whip,  brandished  round  his  head, 

Flickers  like  streamer  in  the  Northern  skies ; 
See  how  his  Ass  on  earth  with  nimble  tread 

Half-flying  rides,  in  air  half-riding  flies. 
Sparkles  like  flint  the  caddy's  hoof  and  burns 

Seeming  to  leave  a  smoke  upon  the  plain  ; 
IJ is  bitted  mouth  the  foam  impatient  churns  : 

Sweeps  his  broad  tail  behind  him  like  a  train." 

SOUTH  on  PETTIT  &  Co 

The  climate  north  of  Mason  and    Dixmi's  line   is   extremely 
cold.     It   makes  no   pretensions  to  more  than  thr^e  months  of 
summer  and  then  the  sun  only  shows  its  pale  face  occasionally 
from  between  the   clouds.      The   natural   consequence   is,   that 
many  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  hyperborean    regions — I  am 
sorry  to  say  that,  in   some  States,  a  majority  of  them — are  pale- 
blooded,  chicken-livered,   and   dou^h- faced,  or  what  in    vulgar 
parlance  is  termed   slack-baked.       Iti  many  instances,  the  face, 
especially,  which  is  unprotected  from  the  effect  of  the  humid  and 
relaxing  qualities  of  the  atmosphere,  remains  permanently  of 
such   consistency   that  it  can  be   readily  moulded,  like  a  loaf  of 
unbaked  bread,  to  any  shape  to  suit  the  wearer,  or  others  who 
may  know   how  to  obtain   leave  to  experiment  upon  it.     In  a 
suitable  temperature,  and  in  the   absence  of  excess  of  moisture, 
most  of  these  faces,  doubtless,  are  capable  of  assuming  the  qual 
ities  of  good    pie-crust,   that  is,  they   would  break  before  they 
would  bend.     It  is  known,  however,  to  housewives  and   pastry 
cooks,  that  certain  kinds  of  dough  melt,  instead  of  becoming 
hardened  by  heat.      They  are  of  the  nature  of  wax  ;   and  it  is 
very  difficult  to  make  this  kind  of  pastry  retain  the  forms  with 
which  it  comes  out  of  the  moulds.     This  is  the  kind  of  pastry 

1 

M2191G6 


out  of  which  the  "dough -faces  "par  excellence  are  moulded.— 
Thank  heaven  this  sort  of  dough  bears  an  exceedingly  small 
proportion  in  the  community,  as  in  the  kitchen,  to  the  other  kind. 
The  faces  composed  of  this  latter  material,  however  pale  and 
soft,  may  be  brought  to  a  good  color,  and  become  fixed,  by  arti 
ficial  temperature,  by  being,  as  it  were,  rebaked.  The  waxy 
kind  I  would  advise  all  people  to  let  alone,  except  those  for 
whose  interest  it  is  to  try  shapes  upon  them.  Kind  reader,  is  it 
not  devoutly  to  be  wished  that  all  the  dough-faces  were  brought 
to  a  good  healthy  brown,  or  blush,  at  least,  except  the  few  which 
are  liquifiable  by  heat  before  the  requisite  temperature  is  at 
tained? 

It  is  probably  remembered  by  the  oldest  inhabitant,  and  per 
haps  some  others,  that  anciently,  before  the  days  of  stoves  and 
other  modern  progress,  there  was  to  be  found  in  most  kitchens, 
a  piece  of  furniture  or  utensil  commonly  called  a  bake-pan,  or 
Dutch  oven.  This  article  was  extremely  convenient  for  getting 
up  extempore  bread,  especially  where  coals  were  plenty,  as  they 
were  every  where  in  those  days.  The  coals  were  placed  un 
der  the  bottom  of  the  vessel  which  bestrode  them  upon  its  three 
short  legs,  and  also  upon  the  broad  bason-shaped  cover,  so  that 
it  not  only  gave  a  quick  bake,  but  the  top  or  face  of  the  loaf 
could  readily  be  brought  to  any  desired  consistency  and  color. 

The  cheerly  old  bake-pan  has,  I  think,  quite  disappeared  from 
Northern  kitchens.  But  in  the  patriarchal  and  oriental  South, 
which  is  not  subject  to  change,  not  nnder  the  inconvenient  and 
expensive  laws  of  progress,  where  towns  and  villages  and  plant 
ations  might  be  supposed  from  their  appearance  to  have  been 
merely  submerged,  but  not  washed  away  or  buried  by  Noah's 
flood,  where  the  maid-servant  still  "grinds  at  the  mill,"  that  is, 
rubs  the  corn  between  two  flat  stones  for  her  master's  hominy, 
where  the  kitchen  is  not  in  the  house  and  the  oven  is  on  a  stump, 
in  the  unchanging  South,  these  ancient  bake-pans  are  still  in 
great  repute  and  great  plenty. 

Now  the  South,  the  "  Sunny  South/'  is  very  fond  of  color,  and 
also  of  hardfeaturedness,  as  manly  and  chivalrous,  hence  it  has 
great  contempt  and  a  sort  of  pity  for  a  dough-face,  as  implying 
both  softness  and  paleness,  and  these  again  a  lack  of  firmness, 
or  uumanliuess.  The  South,  therefore,  very  generously  (the 


5 

South  is  famed  for  its  knightly  (nightly) qualities,)  and  compas 
sionately  offers  to  furnish  any  number  of  the  aforesaid  Dutch 
ovens  sufficient  for  a  rebake  of  the  whole  dough-face  population, 
with  the  exception  of  the  waxy  species,  of  which  she  wishes  to 
make  some  further  use  before  they  are  melted  down.  I  doubt 
not  we  shall  have  occasion  shortly  to  be  grateful  for  rhis  con 
descending  and  patronizing  offer  of  our  elder,  brother.  Nothing 
could  be  more  timely,  and  nothing  could  be  more  convenient  for 
the  purpose  than  the  good  old  bake-pan.  Its  size  is  just  suffi 
cient  for  a  single  face,  so  that  each  can  be  done  to  a  turn,  and 
the  requisite  ruddy  complexion  be  brought  out  by  managing 
properly  the  coals  upon  the  cover.  Nothing  was  more  common 
anciently  than  to  do  the  "  minister's  face5'  in  them  ;  how  firm 
and  crisp  and  warm-colored  it  came  out,  it  is  delightful  to  re 
member.  But  inasmuch  as  fuel  has  become  scarce  in  these  ri 
gorous  latitudes,  and  our  ancient  hearths  with  their  generous 
fires  have  disappeared,  (since  which,  by  the  way,  doughiness  of 
face  has  alarmingly  increased)  the  South  kindly  consents,  not 
only  to  furnish  bake-pans  but  coals  to  match.  Certainly  the 
South  is  very  disinterested,  so  far  as  to  disregard  one's  own  in 
terest  is  disinterestedness,  thus  to  come  up  to  the  help  of  an  in 
efficient  climate  to  set  our  faces  for  us.  If  any  gentleman  dough 
face  is  conscious  of  being  "  slack-baked,"  let  him  place  his 
head  in  the  pan.  I  think  he  will  find  the  Southern  coals  suffi 
ciently  warming  ;  and  if  they  do  riot  set  the  crust  and  bring  out 
the  color,  it  must  be  because  he  is  not  a  red-blooded  animal,  or 
else  his  face  is  of  the  waxy  species.  Or  if  the  Southern  coals 
do  not  bring  the  oven  up  to  the  requisite  temperature,  there  are 
plenty  of  fire-brands  on  the  North  side  of  the  line,  or  what  was 
a  line,  which  can  be  put  under  it.  I,  for  one,  confess  to  having 
been,  until  recently,  rather  pale,  if  not  soft,  and  certainly,  on  try 
ing  the  bake-pan,  I  found  the  heat  so  intolerable,  and  the  in 
dignation  so  burning,  that  I  have  been  unable  to  bear  it  except 
a  few  minutes  at  a  time,  and  yet  the  effect  has  been  such  that 
my  friends  hardly  know  me,  and  wonder  how  I  have  become 
so  changed. 

That  we  may  not  crack  the  pan  or  scorch   the  pastry,  let  us 
"fire  up"  gradually  by  placing   the  oven  over  a  shovelful  of 


Virginia  embers.  Virginia  is  not  very  far  South,  and  will  be 
North  shortly,  Mr.  Examiner. 

The  following  is  from  the  Richmond  (Va.)  Examiner  : 

"  The  South  has  for  years  been  overrun  with  hordes  of  illiterate, 
unprincipled  graduates  of  the  Yankee  free  schools,  (those  hot  beds  of 
self-conceit  and  ignorance.)  who  have  by  dint  of  unblushing  impudence, 
established  themselves  as  schoolmasters  in  our  midst  These  creatures, 
with  rare  exceptions,  have  not  deserved  the  protection  of  our  laws. — 
They  bear,  neither  in  person  nor  in  mind,  a  very  strong  resemblance  to 
human  beings.  So  odious  are  some  of  these  "  itinerant  ignoramuses  " 
to  the  people  of  the  South  ;  so  full  of  abolitionism  and  concealed  in 
cendiarism  are  many  of  this  class;  so  full  of  guile,  fraud  and  deceit, 
that  the  deliberate  shooting  of  one  of  them  down,  in  the  act  of  poison 
ing  tli£  minds  of  our  slaves  or  our  children,  we  think,  if  regarded  as 
homicide  at  all.  should  always  be  deemed  perfectly  justifiable ;  ami  we 
imagine  that,  the  propriety  of  sh  .oting  an  abolition  schoolmaster,  ivlien 
caught  tampering  icith  our  slaves,  has  never  been  questioned  by  any  in 
telligent  Southern  man.  This  ive  take  to  be  the  unwritten  law  of  the 
South.  We  repeat,  that  the  shooting  of  itinerant  abolition  schoolmast 
ers  is  frequently  a  creditable  and  laudable  act,  entitling  a  respectable 
Southern  man  to,  at  least  a  scat  in  the  Legislature,  or  a  place  in  the 
Common  Council.  Let  all  Yankee  schoolmasters  who  propose  invad 
ing  the  South,  endowed  with  a  strong  nasal  t^ang,  a  long  scriptural 
name. and  Webster's  lexicographic  book  of  abominations,  seek  some  more 
congenial  land,  where  their  lives  will  be  more  secure  than  in  the  vile  an.l 
(i  homicidal  Slave  States."  We  shall  be  glad  if  the  ravings  of  the  Ab 
olition  press  about  the  Ward  acquittal,  shall  have  this  effect." 

What  is  the  temperature  of  that,  Mr.  Dough-face?  What  is 
it  by  your  thermometers,  ye  teachers  of  Northern  Schools,  ye,  of 
the  faculty  of  Northern  Colleges  who  graduate  such  ignoram 
uses?  What  do  you  think  of  it,  ye  fathers  who  spent  your  mon 
ey  to  educate  your  sous  into  fools  and  knaves;  ye  mothers  who 
have  borne  things  having  so  little  "resemblance  to  human  be- 

O  C5 

ings?"  If  one  of  "  these  creatures  "  should  speak  to  a  Negro — 
What  for  ?  unless  he  is  an  abolitionist.  And  if  he  presume  to 
rebuke — in  his  function  of  Yankee  schoolmaster — one  of  the 
children  of  the  "dominant  race,"  of  the  "genuine  aristocracy,'' 
would  not  any  Ward  who,  in  either  case,  should  "  shoot  down" 
the  base  bom  menial  be  wvrthy  of  Southern  promotion  ?  Pray 


Mr.  Examiner,  how  many  of  your  distinguished  men,  since  the 
world  began,  have  not  been  educated  either  in  these  same  schools 
at  the  North,  or  by  these  same  schoolmasters  at  home  ?  Since 
you  will  no  longer  come  here,  and  certainly  none  but  the  igno 
ramuses  you  speak  of  will,  hereafter,  go  there,  what  proportion 
of  the  "dominant  race''  will  bye  and  bye  be  able  to  read  and 
write,  since,  even  now,  a  not  much  larger  proportion  of  yoivcan 
do  so  than  of  the  (but  yesterday)  savages  of  the  Sandwich  Is 
lands.  However,  that  is  an  accomplishment  quite  undesirable 
for  the  "crackers"  and  "  poor  white  trash"  because  they  are  to 
be  managed  as  entirely  as  the  Negroes,  only  in  a  different  way 
—  the  "genuine  aristocracy"  has  need  of  their  votes.  And  what 
if  a  Southern  gentleman  cannot  read?  Would  not  an  old  Ro 
man  Senator  have  been  ashamed  to  be  a  man  of  learning?  Lis 
ten,  Dough  faces,  and  feel  of  your  cheeks,  for  here  comes  the 
answer  in  the  form  of  a  few  coals  for  the  cover. 

From  the  Richmond  Enquirer  : 

"  The  relations  between  the  North  and  the  South  are  very  analo 
gous  to  those  which  subsisted  between  Greece  and  the  Roman  Empire 
after  the  subjugation  of  Achaia  by  the  Consul  Mummius.  The  dig- 
nity  and  energy  of  the  Roman  character,  conspicuous  in  war  and  in 
politics,  were  not  easily  tamed  and  adjusted  to  the  arts  of  industry 
and  literature.  The  degenerate  and  pli;iut  Greeks,  oa  the  contrary, 
excelled  in  the  handicraft  and  polite  professions.  We  learn  from  the 
vigorous  invective  of  Juvenal,  that  they  were  the  most  useful  and  ca 
pable  of  servants,  whether  as  pimps  or  professors  of  rhetoric.  Obse 
quious,  dexterous  and  ready,  the  versatile  Greeks  monopolized  the  bu 
siness  of  teaching,  publishing,  and  manufacturing  in  the  Roman  Em 
pire—allowing  their  masters  ample  leisure  for  the  service  of  the  State 
in  the  Senate,  or  in  the  field.  The  people  of  the  Northern  States  of 
this  confederacy  exhibit  the  same  aptitude  for  the  arts  of  industry  — 
They  excel  as  clerks,  mechanics,  and  tradesmen,  and  they  have  mono 
polized  the  business  of  teaching,  publishing,  and  peddling  ;} 

Pimps!  yes,  pimps!  that  is  the  word,  fellow  dough-faces, 
no  !  no  longer  fellow  doughfaces,  mine,  thanks  to  the  bake-pan,  is 
thoroughly  crusted  over.  We  are  also,,  it  seems,  very  "obsequi 
ous,  dexterous  and  ready  "  Greek  slaves  in  many  other  respects, 
especially  in  handicraft  trades,  peddling  and  teaching  so  far  as 


8 

« illiterate  ignoramuses"  can  teach.  Thank  you,  Master !  for 
slaves  are  fond  of  praise  if  they  have  been  well  trained,  forthe- 
reason  that  what  is  rare  is  reckoned  valuable.  However,  I  need 
not  remind  you  that  it  spoils  them,  just  as  it  does  hunting-dogs. 
Keep  the  lash  in  sight,  I  advise  you,  or  what  with  the  manage 
ment  of  African  slaves  including  the  "  poor  white  trash  "  at  the 
South,  and  Greek  slaves  at  the  North,  their  common  " masters n 
the  '-genuine  aristocracy"  will  hardly  have  left  "ample  leisure 
for  the  service  of  the  State,  in  the  Senate  or  in  the  field."  How 
is  the  temperature  inside,  brother  doughface?  do  your  cheeks 
begin  to  tingle  ?  Keep  cool  Sir,  you  are  not  yet  much  warmer 
than  new  milk. 

These  same  "  masters"  of  ours  notwithstanding  their  "Ro 
man  energy,"  are  a  little  afraid  at  times, — such  "useful"  "crea 
tures"  we  are,  they  would  rather  not  part  with  us — that  we  may 
bye  and  bye  get  up  a  Northern  servile  insurrectional^  declare 
ourselves  independent.  However,if  we  should  succeed,  "degener 
ate  Greeks  "  as  we  are,  against  the  "  energy  "  and  "  ample  leis 
ure"  of  our  "masters  "  to  look  after  us — if  we  should  succeed 
in  running  away  they  have  another  fugitive  slave  law  in  pickle 
for  us.  They  are  still  to  have  "complete  control  over  our  des 
tiny;"  whether  this  "  control"  is  to  be  for  our  "  master's  "  benefit 
or  our  own  does  not  appear.  Probably  it  will  be  only  a  disin 
terested  looking  after  our  welfare — if  they  should  have  "  ample 
leisure"  at  that  time — for  it  seems,  that  like  other  born  slavesr 
we  shall  not  be  competent  to  take  care  of  ourselves. 

For  listen  again  to  the  Richmond  Enquirer.  After  saying 
that  the  all-pervading  element  of  slavery  would,  in  case  of  sep 
aration,  hold  the  South  together,  it  thus  prophetically  discours- 
eth. 

"But  the  Northern  States  would  be  bound  together  by  no  such  prin 
ciple  of  Union,  and  in  the  absence  of  the  necessary  centralizing  ten 
dency,  diverse  and  antagonistic  interests  would  scatter  them  asunder, 
and  perchance  drive  them  into  hostile  conflict.  At  any  rate  the  South 
ern  States,  moving  under  the  influence  of  one  will  and  pursuing  a 
single  policy,  would  find  it  no  difficult  task  to  play  off  the  Northern 
States  one  against  the  other,  and  thus  acquire  complete  control  over 
their  destinies.  (  You  see  we  are  to  be  managed — in  or  out  of  the  Un 
ion.)  It  is  obvious  to  the  reflecting  mind,  that  if  the  Northern  States 


were  cut  loose  from  the  South  (like  a  ship  without  a  rudi/'er)  they 
would  be  broken  up  into  as  many  petty  communities,  or  eKse  be  over 
whelmed  in  social  anar  -hy.  The  latter  alternative  would  perhaps  be 
their  more  probable  fate." 

Alas!  unhappy  North  !  behind  us  is  the  lash  of  our  "mas 
ters,"  the  stern  ''Roman  Senators,"  very  Catos  they  are — at 
the  whip  ;  before  us  the  precipice  on  whose  rocks  we  are  to  be 
dashed  in  pieces  ! !  We  are  like  a  herd  of  wretched  deer  which 
the  merciless  wolf-hunt  is  driving  towards  the  gulf. 

But  even  if  we  should,  by  the  displeasure  of  heaven  for  our 
contumacy,  escape  the  double  danger  of  recapture,  or  cutting 
each  other's  throats  ;  a  destiny  still  more  dire  awaits  us.  Starv 
ation  !  like  a  death's  head  next  stares  us  in  the  face  !  and  that 
horrid  fate  will  inevitably  be  ours,  unless  our  former  "  masters  " 
of  mere  pity  should  continue  to  feed  us,  and  their  bowels  of 
compassion  should  still  be  moved  to  send  us  the  weekly  allow 
ance  of  "a  peck  of  corn."  Behold  our  doom  !  brother  dough 
faces.  And  as  we  look  at  it  who  of  us  will  not  look  paler  than 
ever,  and  slink  back,  if  we  have  dared  to  dream  of  freedom,  into 
our  proper  function  of  "pimps"  and  "  peddlers"? 

"  If  by  some  convulsion  of  nature  the  Slave  States  could  be  sun 
ken  beneath  the  level  of  the  waters,  it  would  involve  millions  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  North  in  bankruptcy,  and  ruin,  and  unutterable  mis 
eries. 

Your  lordly  merchant  and  fattened  manufacturer,  your  omnibus 
men  and  porters,  might  all  with  truth  exclaim — 

'  Othello's  occupation's  gone.' 

Your  cities,  now  your  pride  and  strength,  would  dwindle  into  towns  ; 
your  crowded  harbors  grow  empty  and  wild  ;  and  thousands  who  now 
live  in  contentment  and  comfort  would  begfo^  bread  (the  peck  of  corn 
a  week.) 

Reverse  the  picture,  and  suppose  the  free  States  were  blotted  from 
creation.  Why,  sir,  the  fact  wou  d  be  felt  only  by  our  railroad  con 
ductors,  captains  of  steamboats,  and  a  few  politicians  with  national  as 
pirations."  (Mr.  Brooks  of  S.  Carolina  in  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  March  15,  1854) 

Now  I  take  it  that  if,  after  successful  insurrection,  the  South 
should  cut  our  acquaintance  (should  we  escape  cutting  each  oth 
ers  throats)  as  of  course  the  South  would,  it  would  be  ihe  same 

2 


10 

thing  for  us  as  if  the  South  should  be  "sunken  beneath  the  level 
of  the  waters." 

Presum  pious,  traitorous  North  !  hasten  to  make  your  submis 
sion,  lest  you  have  cause  to  remember  the  fate  of  your  great  pro 
totype,  the  first  arch-rebel,  when  he  exclaimed  — 

"  Me  miserable  !  which  way  shall  I  fly  ? 
Infinite  wrath  !  and  infinite  despair  !" 

But  even  so,  though  we  humble  ourselves  and  cease  to  talk 
of  insurrection,  we  are  still  in  a  very  bad  way.  We  are  not 
merely  in  danger  of  anarchy,  famine  or  self-destruction  if  we 
lose  the  protection  of  our  "  masters,"  but  notwithstanding  their 
guidance  and  patronage  and  example,  our  morals,  alas  !  are  al 
ready  "not  fit  to  be  spoken  of"  in  modest  ears.  And  what  we 
are  coming  to  in  that  direction — unless  we  immediately  get  mis 
sionaries  from  the  land  of  the  u  blessed  institution  " — does  not 
yet  appear,  except,  that  our  population  seems  likely  to  gain,  even 
faster  than  hitherto,  upon  that  of  the  South.  But  here  comes  a 
rebuke  for  our  sins — the  sin  of  out-populating  the  South,  espe 
cially — which  may  do  us  good  if  we  make  the  right  use  of  it. 

"  The  wise  old  common  law  carried  into  practice  the  .Divine  institu 
tion  and  produced  the  finest  race  of  matrons  and  maidens  the  world 
has  ever  seen  ;  but  the  Northern  law  givers  prefer  the  law  which  was 
the  offspring  of  the  corruptions  of  heathen  and  imperial  Home  ;  they 
divide  the  household  into  separate  interests  ;  the  domestic  hearth  is 
no  longer  a  common  property  to  the  family.  The  consequences  are 
what  they  ivere  in  Rome — what  they  are  in  Italy  and  Germany  and 
Prance,  where  the  illegitimate  births  are  1  in  15."  (The  Union,  Past 
and  Future  &c.  By  a  Virginian,  p.  40. 

How  is  that,  daughters  of  New  England?  for  I  suppose  the 
peccadilloes  of  your  mothers,  at  least  of  the  married  ones,  are 
not  reckoned,  as  they  cannot  well  be  come  at.  "The  illegiti 
mate  births  are  1  in  15  "  ha  !  No  wonder  our  Northern  girls — 
notwithstanding  the  effect  of  the  climate  upon  the  faces  of  the 
men — are  such  blushing  beauties.  "1  in  15"!  !  Hence  the 
origin  of  the  saying  "  he  is  a  wise  child  who  knows  his  own 
father."  This  pithy  adage  mnst  have  originated  on  the  north 
side  of  "the  line"  that  was  ;  of  course  it  can  have  no  place  on 
the  other.  "1  in  15"  !  How  is  that  in  the  Faderland,  Mem- 


11 

herr '}  Rather  cool !  for  people  who  compel  one  third  of  their 
population  to  herd  together  like  beasts  without  any  law  at  all 
and  exclude  them  wholly  from  the  "  Divine  institution  "';  men 
who  sell  the  members  of  the  "'domestic  hearth"  (as  they  some 
times  condescendingly  call  them)  not  excepting  their  own  chil 
dren  !  !  "Divide  the  household  into  separate  interests  "  do  we? 

But  where  people  enjoy  the  "  inalienable  right  of  non-interven 
tion  "  and  of  course  arrange  their  "domestic  institutions"  to 
suit  themselves,  untrammelled  by  the  "  law-givers,"  there  the 
househ-old  can  have  no  separate  interests  ;  their  families — to 
use  the  word  in  the  sense  in  which  "heathen  and  imperial 
Rome7'  used  it  to  designate  precisely  the  same  thing,  a  house 
hold  including  slaves — their  families  are  a  unit ;  they  have  no 
"separate  interests,"  not  even  when  a  father  is  sold  for  the  rice- 
swamps  of  Georgia,  the  mother  to  pick  cotton  on  the  Red  River, 
and  the  child  for  the  New  Orleans  market.  There,  "  the  do 
mestic  hearth  is  a  common  property  to  the  family  "  Let  us 
contemplate,  brother  dough-faces,  calmly — do  not  yet  get  crusty 
— the  u  Roman  dignity"  and  the  instructive  example  of  our 
•"  masters  " — we  are  but  degenerate  Greeks — it  may  do  us  good. 

If  we  dissolve  the  Union  and  by  miracle  escape  the  inevita 
ble  dangers  and  destruction  which  are  to  be  the  certain  conse 
quence  of  such  fool-hardiness,  though  we  may  be  permitted  to 
lay  aside  our  function  of  pimps  and  peddlers  for  the  South,  an 
equally  disgraceful  one  to  which  we  are  now  indentured — that 
of  slave-catching  for  them — is  not  to  be  discontinued.  For, 
hear  Mr.  Langdon  Cheves  in  the  Nashville  Convention,  who 
was  urging  upon  the  South  immediate  secession. 

"  The  South  can  hardly  overrate  its  strength  when  it  shall  be  united. 
Unite  and  you  will  scatter  your  enemies  (the  North)  as  the  the  autumn 
winds  do  the  fallen  leaves.  Unite,  and  your  slave  property  shall  be 
protected  to  the  very  border  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  Unite,  and 
the  freesoilers  shall,  at  their  peril,  be  a  police  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
your  slaves." 

Alas  !  helpless  and  hopeless  dough-faces,  what  are  we  to  gain 
by  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  ?  This  being  set  to  chase  fel 
low-chattels,  the  white  slaves  after  the  black  ones,  the  Greeks 
after  the  Africans,  this  does  bring  some  color  into  the  palest 


12 

pastry;  but  there  is  plainly  no  remedy  ;  whether  we  "dissolve 
the  Union  "or  the  South  "secedes,"  it  is  all  the  same  to  us  ;  we 
are  to  he  " at  our  peril"  a  "police  to  prevent  the  escape  of 
slaves  " — that  is  our  destiny. 

There  has  heen  of  late  years  a  good  deal  of  discussion  in 
some  quarters,  in  regard  to  the  proper  relation  of  labor  to  capital, 
in  regard  to  the  just  distribution  of  the  common  product,  what 
proportion  of  the  product  of  labor  ought  to  belong  to  the  labor 
ers.  Quite  a  nut  to  crack  this  has  been,  quite  a  Gordian  knot 
for  the  political  economists.  But — such  is  the  effect  of  "ample 
leisure"  for  reflection — the  South,  the  chivalrous  South,  steps 
forward  and  with  the  sword  of  Alexander,  cuts  us  that  knot 
with  norfrtct  easo  and  laughs  in  our  faces  for  at  tempting  to  unite 
it.  How  much  ought  to  belong  to  the  laborers?  nothing  ought 
to  hrtloiiij  t<>  th'Mii.  Give  them,  no  wages  at  all — make  slaves  or 
seifs  of  thj •'!,  «t:»J  give  them  subsistence,  a  pe  knf  corn  a  week 
— give  them  masters,  that  is  what  they  ought  to  have.  Listen 
again  to  ih:J  Richmond  (Va.)  Examiner.  But  this  is  intended 
especially  for  our  cousins  from  beyond  sea,  except  in  so  far  as 
we  aborigines  (one  in  fifteen  of  us  being  illegitimates)  resemble 
them  and  I  ^ve  need  of  the  same  kind  of  guardianship.  Let 
them  walk  up  and  try  a  bake-pan  a  piece — there  are  enough  for 
us  all. 

Speaking  of  foreign  immigrants  (by  the  way.  what  could  have 
been  the  character  of  the  "  migration"  from  which  the  Exam 
iner  is  descended)  the  Examiner  says  : 

"  The  mass  of  them  are  sensual,  grovelling,  low-minded  agrarians' 
European  writers  describe  a  large  class  of 

population  throughout  England  and  the  continent  as  being  distinguish 
ed  by  restless,  wandering  habits  (just  like  those  of  the  first  settlers  of 
Virginia)  and  by  a  peculiar  conformation  of  the  skull  and  face.  Ani 
mal  and  sensual  nature  largely  predominates  with  them  over  the  moral 
and  intellectual.  It  is  they  who  commit  crimes,  fill  prisons  and  adorn 
the  gallows.  They  ran  away  from  liberty. 

Had  they  feudal  lords  or  misters  like  Russians. Hungarians  and  Turks 
to  fun'ioh  them  homes,  and  subsistence,  not  one  of  them  would  quit. 

In  a  few  years  the  blasphemous  reformers 

will  curse  heaven  that  it  did  not  bless  the  North  with  African  slavery, 

the  only  antidote  to  a  crowded,  motley,  foreign  and  native  population. 

*  When  Owen  and  his  compeers  (the  people 


13 

of  New  England  and  tbe  North)  cite  an  instance  in  history  of  any 
considerable  civilized  nation,  the  mass  of  whose  people  continued  pros- 
perous  and  contented  for  three  centuries,  without  domestic  slavery,  or 
some  similar  institution,  (but  with  them  the  masses  are  contented  and 
happy,  as  witness  France  before  the  revolution  and  the  rest  of  modern 
Europe)  it  will  be  time  enough  to  call  on  us—"  who  have  a  happy,  qui 
et,  contented  society"  (only  we  require  a  northern  police,  acting  under 
peril,  "  to  prevent  its  escape") — to  imitate  their  institutions." 

What  say  you,  strangers,  you  of  the  "  peculiar  conformation 
of  the  skull  and  face"  (not  dough  faces  )  you  who  are  partial  to 
stone  residences  and  to  dancing  jigs  upon  nothing  1  Was  it 
"liberty"  you  t;  ran  away  from''?  did  you  "quit"  because  you  had 
no  masters?  was  it  masters  you  came  for?  I  can  guide  you 
all  in  the  way  you  should  go.  Stain  your  skins  a  little  yellow 
ish never  mind  the  hair,  straight  will  do  ;  especially  you  of  the 

"faderland"  have  curl  enough  in  yours — and  start  for  Rich 
mond — inquire  for  the  State  where  Washington  lived  (you  have 
heard  of  him,  he  was  one  of  your  run  away-from-liberty  fellows) 

on  arrival  report  yourselves  "fugitives   from   freedom  "and 

send  for  an  auctioneer. 

Herein  is  explained  too  why  it  is  that  we  "  natives;"  have  be 
come  such  ts  degenerate  Grreeks."  Why  it  is  that  we  can  no 
longer  do  without  a  master.  We  are  in  the  third  century  of  a 
foolish  attempt  to  keep  up  a  prosperous  civilization  without  sla 
very.  Perhaps  the  few  slaves  that  some  of  us  had,  for  a  timey 
was  the  salt  that  preserved  us  hitherto,  and  that  now  it  is  losing 
its  savor,  and  we  are  about  to  "curse  heaven"  in  our  putrefac 
tion  presently  to  follow. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  why  men  who  think  "  feudal  lords  * 
or  other  "  masters  "  for  the  people  so  necessary  to  preserve  civi 
lized  nations  from  the  sin  of  cursing  heaven,  arid  the  masses 
from  discontent, should,  by  a  natural  sympathy  and  "fellow-feel 
ing,"  be  drawn  lovingly  towards  those  of  the  same  pious  and  phi 
lanthropic  political  principles.  Hence  we  need  riot  stare,  or  be  as 
tonished,  be  "  amazed,"  as  the  "distinguished  Senator  from  Mich- 
gan  "  would  say,  at  the  merely  seeming  inconsistency  and  inap- 
propriateness,  when  we  find,  in  leading  papers  of  Southern 
democracy  such  language  as  the  following  : 

It  is  the  uniform   testimony- of  intelligent  writers  that  the  Russian 


14 

peasantry  or  people  are  more  content,  enjoy  a  larger  measure  of  social 
and  domestic  comfort,  and  are  more  attached  to  their  institutions  than 
the  same  class  under  any  other  Government  in  Europe.  *  *  * 
Why,  then,  have  we  become  the  enthusiastic  partizans  of  France, 
(France  has  no  serfs  like  Russia,  or  feudal  lords,  just  now.  The 
French  peasantry,  people,  "  canaille,"  though  "  well  contented."  and 
well  enough  off,  not  more  than  one  in  ten  of  them  having  died  of  star 
vation,  yet,  being  "  tampered  with  "  by  anti-feudal  abolitionists,  did 
one  day,  eat  up,  devour  and  quite  make  an  end  of,  at  one  "  fell  swoop." 
or  soup,  their  feudal  lords,  root  and  branch,  not  even  leaving  enough 
for  seed — and  a  bloody  supper  they  had  of  it)  and  England  (England 
though  partial  enough  to  some  kinds  of  slavery,  and  the  very  pink  of 
aristocracy,  yet  abolishes  t;  African  slavery,")  in  their  struggles  with 
Russia?  *  *  *  What  principle  shall  dictate  the  policy  of 
this  Government  under  such  circumstances  ?  Shall  we,  like  the  dinting 
fanatic,  obey  the  impulse  of  a  morbid  philanthropy,  or  shall  we  steer 
our  course  by  the  maxims  of  State  ?  Shall  we  feel  more  concern  for 
the  effete  empire  of  the  barbarous  Turk  than  for  our  own  interests  ? 
Shall  we  yield  to  the  influnce  of  England  and  France  and  passively 
foil  a  victim  to  their  intrigues,  or  shall  we  throw  out  the  hand  of  friend 
ship  to  Russia  and  thus  abate  their  aspiring  pretensions  and  counter 
act  their  ominous  alliance? 

Oh  !  "throw  out  the  hand  of  friendship  to  Russia"  by  all 
means,  and  perhaps  Austria  would  be  happy  to  join.  So  you 
shall  be  in  a  promising  way  to  kill  two  birds  with  one  stone. 
In  the  first  place,  you  will  have  a  power  which  will  be  at  least 
willing  to  attempt  to  exercise  itself  according  to  the  following 
direc  ions  of  the  (worthy  captain)  Richmond  (Va.)  Examiner. 

"  This  power  should  be  so  exercised  as  to  crush  out,  really  and  tru 
ly,  the  Freesoil  and  Anti-slavery  fanaticism.  There  should  be  no 
peace  or  truce  allowed  the  insiduous  enemy.  "  CRUSH  IT  OUT  ["  should 
be  the  shibboleth  and  watchword." 

(Be  careful  that  you  don't  crush  out  more  of  it  than  you  will 
know  what  to  do  with.)  And  in  the  second  place,  you  may  re 
alize  the  darling  wish  of  your  hearts  and  clutch  Cuba  if — you 
are  strong  enough. 

We  of  the  North  are  in  a  pretty  promising  way,  after  all. — 
Our  anti  slavery  is  to  be  "  crushed  out  "  of  us — if  not  otherwise, 
by  "throwing  out  the  hand  of  friendship  to  Russia" — where- 
uponj  of  course;  the  low  of  slavery  will  take  its  placej  the  South 


15 

t 

will  be  kind  enough  to  breed,  or  beget,  the  slaves  for  us;  so,  if 
we  piously  pray  in  that  direction,  shall  we  escape  the  "predes 
tinate  "  sin  of  "  cursing  heaven  "  for  the  want  of  slavery. 

Alas  !  if  we  should  not  live  to  see  that  happy  day  !— for  we 
are  in  danger  of  another  kind  of  crushing.  Not  to  have  our  an 
ti-slavery  and  other  impurities  crushed  out  of  us  ;  but  to  be  our 
selves  crushed,  quite  trodden  into  pulp.  But  then  our  blood 
will  stain  no  vulgar  feet.  Listen  with  what  queenly  dignity 
(alias,  "  solemn  swell  ")— by  the  mouth  of  her  Moumjoy  herald 
and  favorite  trumpeter,  the  Richmond  Enquirer— our  "well 
born  "  mistress  "from  her  elevated  pedestal"  passes  sentence 
upon  us  , which  she  will  herself  "  condescend  "  to  execute. 

"  Virginia,  in  this  confederacy,  is  the  impersonation  of  the  well  born, 
well  educated,  well  bred  aristocrat.  She  looks  down  from  her  elevated 
pedestal  upon  her  parvenu,  ignorant,  mendacious,  Yankee  vilifiers  as 
coolly  and  calmly  as  a  marble  statue.  Occasionally,  in  Congress,  or  in 
the  nominating  conventions  of  the  Democratic  party,  she  condescends, 
when  her  interests  demand  it,  to  recognize  the  existence  of  her  adversa 
ries,  at  the  very  moment  she  crushes  them." 

Hearest  thou  ?  dough-face.  There  is  a  specimen  of  the  "  well 
bred"  for  you — but  let  us  not  be  angry,  for  very  pity. 

O,  Virginia  !  eldest  and,  by  nature,  fairest  sister  of  the  family! 
once  patrician  indeed  ;  now  decayed  and  shrunk  to  the  "  shabby 
genteel !"  and  fallen  to  the  mock  heroic  !  Mother  of  Washing 
ton,  of  Marshall,  of  Madison — mother  of  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence — mother  of  the  Constitution,  except  its  fau'ts;  now 
self-doomed  to  give  birth  only  to  scrub  politicians  and  flunky 
editors  and  to  be  the  br — d — r, — but  I  will  not  speak  it.  Let  me 
rather  walk  backwards  and  cover  thy  shame  ! 

O,  Slavery !  Pandora's  box!  "eldest-born  of  Sin  !"  surely, 
there  are  still  "envious  deities"  who  rejoice  at  human  imperfec 
tions  and  purpose  human  ills.  Without  this  blot !  this  shame  ! 
this  blight !  this  curse  !  this  firebrand  of  discord  !  how  happy, 
beyond  earthly  fortune,  were  these  States ! 

As  Mr.  Madison  asserted  in  the  Federal  Convention,  "that 
the  difference  of  interest  in  the  United  States,  lay  not  between 
the  large  and  small,  but  the  Northern  and  Southern  States  ;"  so 
has  it  proved  and  ever  will  prove,  and  the  ground  of  this  differ- 


16 

ence  is  "African  Shivery."  It  is  Slavery  and  only  Slavery, 
"  Goblin  damn'd,"— 

"  That  dares  to  advance 
Its  miscreated  front  athwart  our  way  ;" 

a  way  otherwise  unimpeded,  an:l  path  open,  towards  honor,  re 
nown,  arid  more  than  human  prosperity.  Slavery,  in  our  fath 
ers'  time,  meek,  humble,  self-apologetical,  ashamed  of  its  own 
blackness,  asking  leave  to  die,  ("  If  left  to  herselfj  she  (Georgia) 
may  probably  put  a  stop  to  the  evil."  Madison  papers,  p.  1393) 
now  tosses  high  its  Gorgon  head  with  air  imperial  and  demands 
of  the  North  and  commands,  obedience  "  at  our  peril." 

Slavery,  the  right  to  enslave  and  make  property  of  MEN,  is  to 
be  declared,  nay  has  been  declared  from  the  American  Capitol, 
one  of  the  inherent  and  inalienable  rights  of  freemen;  an  essen 
tial  element  in  the  national  organization  ;  is  to  be  transfused — 
for  there  was  no  inherent  drop  of  it  there — into  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  and  to  become  its  very  heart's  blood.  The 
National  Government  is  to  become  a  great  slavery  "  propagan 
da,"  and  grand  missionary  society  for  the  diffusion  of  this  new 
gospel  of  freedom.  We  are  to  stand  up  with  shameless,  brazen 
front  and  strumpet  voice,  and  proclaim  this  in  the  ears  of  man 
kind.  This,  sometime,  "peculiar  institution"  is  to  be  "  pecu 
liar77  no  longer,  but  is  to  be  the  grand  machine  of  freedom — the 
South  is  to  work  it  and  the  North,  "  at  its  peril"  is  to  stand  sen 
try  over  it.  Such,  dough-faces,  is  the  Southern  platform,  and, 
"  at  your  peril"  you  have  got  to  march  on  to  it. 

Well,  even  this  were  not  much  if,  besides  being  of  Southern 
origin,  it  were  accompanied  only  with  Southern  insults  and 
backed  only  by  Southern  apologists  and  Southern  threats. — 
These  Southern  coals,  after  all.  are  not  very  hot.  They  can 
only  bring  up  the  hake-pan  to  the  temperature  of  a  pretty  de 
cided  and  healthy  indignation.  They  are  not  sufficient  to  stamp 
a  permanent  "  red  in  the  face."  1  know  not  how  it  is  that  we  have 
not  so  deep  a  feeling  of  shame,  and  sentiment  of  reprobation, 
when  a  Southern  man  defends  or  ignores  the  injustice  of  slavery, 
as  when  a  Northern  man  does  the  same.  The  moral  degrada 
tion  which  follows  familiarity  and  contact  with,  arid  the  habit- 


17 

ual  practice  of  any  vice  whatever,  though  it  does  not  diminish 
the  guilt  or  lighten  the  responsibility  of  those  who  thus  demor 
alize  themselves,  does  yet,  somehow,  in  relation  to  the  feelings, 
if  not  in  the  estimation  of  men,  extenuate  the  enormity  of  their 
conduct,  and  they  are  not,  for  some  reason,  judged  as  severely 
as  are  those  fresh  from  the  regions  of  virtue,  who  do  the  same 
tilings.  When  told  that  the  habitual  thief  has  stolen,  nobody 
cares  except  the  loser ;  but  if  a  man  of  unblemished  character 
is  convicted  of  larceny,  the  whole  community  is  moved.  AH 
the  world  expects  the  common  drunkard  to  be  found  in  the  gut 
ter — the  pirate  to  be  bloody-minded — the  strumpet  to  be  un 
chaste.  The  world,  therefore,  is  indifferent,  or  feels  just  enough 
to  make  it  a  pleasurable  excitement.  So,  when  we  read  that 
gentlemen  at  the  South,  not  unfrequently  sell  their  own  child 
ren,  we  smile,  (though  perhaps  a  little  on  the  wrong  side  of  the 
mouth)  as  jf  it  were  a  pretty  good  joke.  But  if  any  creature  in 
human  form  in  Massachusetts  or  Vermont,  were  known  to  have 
sold  his  own  child  into  slavery,  would  not  one  wide  shriek  of 
horror  arise  to  heaven  at  so  infamous  a  crime  !  We,  somehow, 
naturally  expect,  arid  are,  therefore,  the  less  excited  at  all  sorts 
of  flunkey  insolence  from  men  whose  rights  originated  in  piracy, 
and  are  maintained  by  niching  the  labor  of  slaves  extorted  by 
the  lash. 

But  when  men  baptised  in  the  uncontaminated  waters  of  free 
dom,  and  reared  on  honest  bread,  with  a  sophistry  worthy  of  the 
"  father  of  lies,"  attempt  to  make  the  "  peculiar  "  shame  a  na 
tional  infamy  ;  would  inoculate  the  stinking  ulcer  of  the  extrem 
ity — fit  only  for  excision — upon  the  "  unsmirched  "  face  of  our 
beautiful  mother :  would  sell  us  and  her  to  this  unutterable  de 
gradation — then,  let  shame  prepare  to  blush  indeed,  and  indig 
nation  turn  to  bitter  wrath.  Truly,  here  are  coals  hot  enough. 
Try  them,  my  countryman,  and  if  they  do  not  bring  thee  to  thy 
color,  thou  hast  a  swine's  face  and  art  no  man. 

An  approved,  because  successful,  method  of  bringing  to  the 
ground  any  structure,  however  firm  its  base  or  massive  its  walls, 
is  to  undermine  the  corner-stone.  Now  the  foundation  stones  of 
our  whole  national  superstructure,  as  all  the  world  knows,  and 
as  every  man  is  conscious  the  moment  he  thinks  of  it,  are  the 
3 


18 

principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  1  do  not  know  that, 
until  now,  more  than  one  American  citizen,  and  he.  thank  heav 
en,  was  not  a  Northern  man — has  dared,  in  open  day,  to  put 
forth  his  impious  hand  to  touch  these  sacred  foundations.  Many 
there  have  been,  who,  conscious,  with  instinctive  perception, 
that  slavery  cannot  stand  there,  have  attempted,  burrowing 
mole -like,  to  eap  them  unseen.  It  was  reserved  for  a  scrub- 
politician  of  the  West,  and  lick-spittle  of  the  South,  to  offer  this 
impudence  to  the  North.  "The  distinguished  Senator  from 
Michigan,"  very  politely  informed  him  that  he  is  an  ass;-which 
is  past  disputing — not,  however,  for  his  attack  upon  the  Decla- 
tion  of  Independence,  because  the  "  distinguished  Senator's " 
own  course  is  but  a  burrowing  beneath  it.  But  he  is  too  old  a 
gambler  to  show  his  hand,  like  his  asinine  partner.  Here  is  his 
(the  ass',)  trump-card  :  look  at  it !  freemen  of  the  north  side  of 
"  the  line:' — that  was. 

"  It  is  alleged  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  and  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  is  referred  to,  to  sustain  that  position.  *  *  *  It  is 
not  true  in  fact :  it  is  not  true  in  law  5  it  is  not  true  physically,  mental 
ly,  or  morally,  that  all  men  are  created  equal.  (Who  ever  asserted 
any  such  thing  to  be  true,  my  man  ?)  '*  If  Mr.  Jefferson  had 

said  in  his  Declaration  of  Independence  that  all  men  constituting  por 
tions  of  the  body-politic,  ought  to  be  equal,  ought  to  have  equal  political 
rights,  (not  '•  all  men"  mark,  but  "portions  of  the  body -politic"  that 
is.  one  State  to  legislate  if  it  choose,  that  all  its  inhabitants  shall  be 
equal  before  the  law.  equally  defended  in  their  ;;  inalienable  rights  :  " 
another  State  to  legislate  that  one  half  its  inhabitants  shall  be  the 
slaves  i  f  the  other  half — such  is  this  marts  notion  of  equality.)  there 
would  have  been  something  like  propriety  and  wisdom  in  it.  (But  to 
assert  that  all  men  are  equal,  and  ought  to  be  equal,  in  that  they  are 
equally  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights,among 
which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness — that  was  devoid 
of  all  "  propriety  and  wisdom"  ;  for  why?  it  is  no  longer  the  Southern 
doctrine.)  I  cannot  believe  that  Mr.  Jefferson  ever  intend 

ed  to  give  the  meaning  or  force  which  is  attempted  now  to  be  applied 
to  this  language  (by  whom,  except  by  yourself,  pitiful  sophist  ?)  when 
he  said  ;  "  we  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident,  that  all  men  are 
created  equal."  1  hold  it  to  be  a  self-evident  lie."  (  Pettit  of  Indiana, 
in  the  Senate  on  the  Nebraska  Bill,  Feb'y.  20,1854.  Append,  to  the 
Cong.  Globe  p.  214.") 


19 

Well,  sir,  Mr.  Jefferson  probably  was  not,  just  then,  thinking 
of  the  verbal  tricks  of  small  lawyers  ;  but  if  he  meant  what, 
even  under  the  appropriate  definition  given  of  you  by  the  "dis 
tinguished  Senator  from  Michigan,"  you  very  well  know  he  did 
mean,  then  your  Nebraska  sophism  requires  that  his  meaning 
should  be  distorted  in  order  that  it  may  be  ridiculed.  Perhaps, 
sir,  you  may  have  occasion  to  remember  the  adage  in  regard  to 
playing  with  edged  tools.  It  would  have  been  more  prudent,  I 
think,  to  ignore  the  existence  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
as  did  the  less  asinine  politicians  around  you,  for  instance,  the 
"distinguished  Senator  from  Michigan."  Will  the  people  of  In 
diana  find  and  believe  that  you  have  so  annihilated  the  princi 
ples  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  that  as  a  logical  and 
natural  consequence,  there  can  be  no  objection  to  blotting  out 
the  line  of  freedom  ?  Will  that  be  their  finding"  when  you  come 
before  their  tribunal  ? 

But  the  friends  and  defenders  of  the  "  unalienable  rights  "  with 
which  "  all  men  "  are  equally  endowed  by  their  Creator,  must 
feel  less  of  anger  than  contempt  towards  so  small  an  enemy, 
were  it  not  that  he  is  to  be  considered  as  the  Index  of  the  thoughts, 
wishes,  and  purposes,of  others,  who,  until  they  have  first  felt  the 
way,  are  too  prudent  lo  do  more,  in  their  own  persons,  than 
to  imply  and  insinuate  the  same  things.  Let  us  leave  him  to  be 
dealt  with  by  the  people  of  Indiana,  while  we  listen  to  a  few 
more  of  the  northern  camp-followers  of  the  army  of  infamy, 
and  then  come  to  the  renegade  captains  of  this  invasion  of  the 
territory  of  freedom,  this  attack  upon  the  most  sacred  rights,  and 
insulting  defiance  of  the  deepest  feelings,  of  mankind. 

Listen,  freemen,  if  you  dare  call  yourselves  freemen,  where 
such  language  is  used. 

c:  They  (the  people  of  the  territories)  know  what  product  of  the  soilis 
the  best  and  most  profitable  to  them  ;  ichat  hind  of  labor  will  yield 
the  greatest  revenue — whether  free  or  slave  labor.  Then  why  not  let 
them  aet  upon  and  choose  them  ?  Why  not  let  them  pass  such  laws 
as  their  own  welfare  may  require  ?  and  what  state  in  the  Union  will 
deny  them  the  right?  Can  Massachusetts?  No  ;  for  she  was  the  first 
herself  to  resist  the  oppressive  laics  of  England.  Can  any  one  of  the 
New  England  States  ?  No  ;  for  they  have  equally  felt  and  resisted 
oppression.  Can  Pennsylvania?  No  ;  for  she  too  has  risen  up  in  op- 


20 

position  to  oppressive  laws.      (Bridges  of  Pa.,  Append.  Cong.  Globe 
p.  354.) 

Is  not  that  language  admirable  !  my  countrymen,  in  the 
mouth  of  a  northern  legislator  ?  Could  a  New  England 
farmer  speculate  more  coolly  on  the  question  whether  oxen  or 
horses,  considering  the  character  of  his  farm,  would  make  the 
most  profitable  team  for  him  ?  Could  any  Christian  man,  any 
honest  man,  or  respectable  devil  even,  suspect  there  was  invol 
ved  here  the  question  whether  or  not  MEN,  "in  the  image  of 
God,"  and  the  children  of  God,  should  be  degraded  to  beasts, 
driven  like  oxen  under  the  lash  or  the  goad,  bought  and  sold 
like  other  animals,  propagated  for  the  market  by  promiscuous 
intercourse  of  the  sexes,  the  owners  playing  "pimp"  (thank 
you  for  the  word,  Mr.  Enquirer)  for  the  likeliest  males,  and  oth. 
wise  improving  the  merchantable  qualities  of  the  "  stock,"  as 
we  breed  j>wine  ?  this  !  this  ?  yes  this  !  !  f  my  countrymen,  as 
it  might  or  might  not  be  deemed  the  more  profitable  to  work 
MEN  or  horses  !  And  then  the  logic  of  this  admirable,  would 
to  heaven  I  could  say  unique  extract !  !  Did  not  Massachu 
setts  refuse  to  submit  to  the  smallest  encroachments  upon  her 
natural  and  inalienable  rights  and  liberties,  to  any  form  of  in 
justice  ?  Did  not  New  England  refuse  to  be  enslaved  ?  Did 
not  Pennsylvania  fight  for  freedom,  even  for  the  freedom  of  a 
negro  born  of  a  fugitive  slave  upon  her  soil  ?  (See  Prigg  vs. 
State  of  Pennsylvania.)  How  then  can  these  States,  since  it  is 
their  duty,  with  others,  to  give  organization  and  birth  to  embryo 
States — how  can  they  '•'-deny  them  the  right"  to  have  incorpo 
rated,  among  their  organic  laws,  one  which  shall  permit  them 
— if  they  shall  deem  it  most  PROFITABLE — loioork  men,  whom 
they  have  plundered  of  the  very  right  TO  be  men — MEN  instead  of 
horses  in  their  fields,  to  the  extent  of  one-quarter,  one-half,  or 
two-thirds,  as  the  case  may  be,  of  their  inhabitants  ?  Can  Mas 
sachusetts  be  guilty  of  such  inconsistency  ?  Can  the  "  Cradle 
of  Liberty"  inflict  such  flagrant  outrage  upon  the  just  rights  of 
freemen  ?  Can  Massachusetts  so  oppress  her  brethren  ?  Can 
Massachusetts  deprive,  it  may  be  her  own  children,  of  the  right 
to  employ  the  most  profitable  labor  \  of  that  necessary  "  inci- 


21 

dent  "  of  self-government,  the  "  inalienable  right  "  to  buy,  and 
sell,  and  propagate  for  market,  their  fellow  men. 

Land  of  Morris  and  of  Franklin  !  was  this  man  the  product 
of  thy  soil  ?  and  does  he  breathe  in  thy  atmosphere?  Alas! 
alas  !  from  more  than  fifty  northern  mouths,  speaking  for  twelve 
free  States  proceeded  this  same  "  smoke  of  the  pit,"  filling  with 
stench  the  nostrils  of  all  honest  men,  and  "  smelling  to  heav 
en  !  ! " 

We  need  not  stop  to  listen  to  any  more  of  the  liege-men  of 
this  dynasty  of  shame.  When  we  have  heard  one  we  have 
heard  them  all.  They  one  and  all  follow  the  cue  of  the  leaders, 
except  that  some  of  them  have  not  been  sufficiently  trained,  and 
though  on  the  scent  of  the  same  game,  are  apt  to  bark  up  the  wrong 
tree.  They  blurt  out  about  the  right  of  the  people  of  the  territories 
to  employ  such  labor  as  they  shall  deem  most  profitable — that  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  is  a  humbug  &c..  &c.,  whereas 
their  more  cautious,  and  as  they  reckon  themselves,  crafty  cap 
tains,  are  careful  to  use  such  fine  phrases  as  "  non-intervention  " 
— "  the  great  principle  of  self-government " — "  regulate  their 
domestic  concerns  in  their  own  way  " ;  and  plenty  more  of  the 
same  sort.  One  would  suppose,  to  hear  these  pious  patriots,  that 
the 'fundamental  principles  of  our/ree  institutions  had  been  un 
dermined,  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  really  be 
come  obsolete,  and  that  they  were  aspiring  to  the  glory  of  being 
called  "  Restorers  of  their  country."  Listen  to  the  "distinguish 
ed  Senator  from  Michigan." 

"  I  have  been  amazed  at  the  subtle  arguments,  politico-metaphysic 
al  indeed,  which  have  been  presented  against  the  enjoyment  of  one  of 
the  most  sacred  rights  which  God  has  given  to  man." 

"  There  is  one  barrier  so  plain  that  it  cannot  be  overpassed  through 
ignorance,  and  ought  not  to  be  through  design.  And  that  is  the  inter 
nal,  domestic  affairs  of  these  EMBRYO  STATES.  We  know  we  cannot 
touch  their  domestic  hearths,  nor  their  domestic  altars,  their  family 
and  social  relations,  their  wives  nor  their  children,  their  man  servants 
nor  their  maid-servants,  without  a  gross  violation  of  the  inalienable 
rights  of  man.  There  is  no  human  intellect,  however  mighty  it  may 
be,  which  can  render  this  plea  of  tyranny  acceptable  to  the  American 
people."  Again,  in  answer  to  a  question  where  the  people  of  the  ter 
ritories  get  the  right  to  legislate  for  themselves,  he  says:  "they  get  it 


22 

from  Almighty  God."     (Cass,  on  the  Nebraska  Bill,  Append,  to  Cong. 
Globe  pp.  277.  279.) 

Now,  freemen  of  the  North,  considering  the  occasion,  the  pur 
pose,  the  meaning  of  these  fair  words,  the  conclusion  implied 
here,  is  it  not  admirable?  admirable  !  !  admirable  logic  !  !  ! 

But  hearken  also  to  "the  other  shape,"  the  great  Senator  from 
Illinois: 

-  The  principle  that  we  propose  to  carry  into  effect  is  this.  That 
Congress  shall  neither  legislate  slavery  into  any  Territories  or  States 
nor  out  of  the  same  ;  but  the  people  shall  be  left  free  to  regulate  their 
domestic  concerns  in  their  own  way,  subject  only  to  the  constitution  of 
the  United  States. 

In  order  to  carry  this  principle  into  practical  operation,  it  becomes 
necessary  to  remove  whatever  legal  obstacles  might  be  found  in  the 
way  of  its  free  exercise.  It  is  only  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out 
this  great  fundamental  principle,  of  ;c?f -government  that  the  bill  ren 
ders  the  eighth  section  of  the  Missouri  Act  inoperative  and  void." 
(Douglas  on  the  Nebraska  Bill.) 

Do  not  be  alarmed,  dear  dough-faces,  there  is  nothing  meant 
except  to  give  you  leave  to  "  regulate  your  domestic  concerns  in 
your  own  waif-  -"  to  carry  out  this  great  fund  amenta!  principle 
of  self-government,"  this  <•  non-intervention"  principle;  and  as 
"a  mere  incident  of  it'1  to  ::  render  the  eighth  section  of  the 
Missouri  Act  inoperative  and  void"  Can  any  American  free 
man  complain  of  such  a  principle  ?  For  suppose,  dear  dough 
faces,  that  instead  of  being  organized  into  free  States,  as  you  are, 
and  doing  your  own  work  as  you  do,  you  were  inhabitants  of  a 
territory  and  no\v  about  to  make  your  organic  laws  :  if  you  chose 
to  ordain  that  every  third  man  of  your  people,  with  all  their 
posterity,  should  be  the  property,  do  the  work,  pay  the  taxes,  be 
"  bound  in  all  cases,  what  by  the  will  of  the  rest  of  you  ; 

would  it  not  be  your  right?  I  demand  of  you  to  answer  me  as 
honest  men  and  American  freemen  (do  not  dodge  the  issue) 
would  it  not  be  your  right,  and  according  to  "the  principles  of 
the  Revolution"*!  and  toll  me,  does  not  your  old  "  Missouri  com 
promise  line"  abridge  that  right,  that  "  great  fundamental  priii- 
ciple  of  self-government" 'I  does  it  not  involve,  for  all  on  the 
north  side  of  it,  the  same  principle  of  "  oppression"  against  which 


23 

our  fathers  contended,  and  for  which  they  laid  down  their  lives'/ 
When  we  reflect  that  under  the  language  of  these  men,  much 
of  it  sacred  to  freedom,  and  associated  in  the  minds  of  those  for 
whose  ears  it  is  intended,  with  free  life  and  liberty;  there  lies  con 
cealed,  or  at  least,  attempted  to  be  concealed, 

"  A  universe  of  death  ; 

Where  all  life  dies,  death  lives,  and  nature  breeds 
Perverse,  all  monstrous,  all  prodigious  things, 
Abominable,  unutterable," 

to  wit:  the  more  than  Oircean  horrors  of  MEN  transformed  to 
beasts,  the  horrors  of  slave-scourging,  slave-breeding  and  slave- 
selling — when  we  remember  that  this  is  what  these  fair  words 
mean,  and  that  they  were  uttered  by  American  senators  in  the 
American  Senate.  I  say  it  is  infamous  sophistry  !  I  say  in  the 
face  of  Christendom,  infamous  !  arid  if  I  should  say  in  the 
name  of  Christendom,  infamous !  from  every  quarter  of  Chris 
tendom  would  come  back  the  damning  echo — infamous! 

This  is  "Non-intervention"!  freemen  of  the  North,  "non-in 
tervention"  !  a  word  intended  for  those  of  us  who  have  the  soft 
est  kind  of  dough-faces,  "non-intervention"  !  It  reminds  one  of 
the  "  Veiled  Prophet"  of  eastern  story,  whom  his  followers  took 
for  a  god.  But  when  at  length  his  enemies  had  stript  off  the 
silver  screen,  there  was  found  under  it  a  "  gorgon  dire,"  a  "  gob 
lin  damned,'1  a  face  too  hideous  for  human  eyes.  So  under  this 
flimsy  screen  of  non- intervention,  transparent  to  all  except  to 
the  purblind,  and  to  the  ostriches  who  have  stuck  their  own 
heads  under  it,  there  is  what 

;:  seems  woman  to  the  waist  and  fair,  (announced  as 

the  goddess  of  Liberty) 
But  ending  foul  in  many  a  scaly  fold. 
Voluminous  and  vast ;  a  serpent  arm'd 
With  mortal  sting ;  about  her  middle  round 
A  cry  of  hell-hounds  never  ceasing  bark, 
With  wide  Cerberian  mouths  full  loud,  and  ring 
A  hideous  peal." 

Such  is  this  •'•  fair  creature,"  Non-intervention,  "raised"  at  the 
South, honored  and  worshiped  there — the  "  great  Diana"  of  these 


24 

li  Ephesians" — not  degenerate  Greeks— now  condescendingly 
offered  to  the  co-embraces  of  the  North,  and  lovingly  taken  to 
the  bosoms  of — "  the  distinguished  Senators."- 

But — The  South  washes  its  hands  of  this  business.  "Sir, 
the  South  did  not  introduce  this  question  here."  (See  Nebraska 
debates,  all  the  way  through  that  wide  chapparal).  The  South 
has  not  obliterated  "the  line" — that  was.  The  faith-keeping 
South  has  not  "removed  its  neighbor's  land-mark."  The  inno 
cent  South  has  not  "murdered  sleep."  Oh!  no  !  ! 

"  Thou  cans't  not  say,  I  did  it :  never  shake 

Thy  gory  locks  at  me." 

But  let  us  look  a  little  at  what  preceded   the  t:  bloody   deed." 

— "  Sirrah,  a  word  with  you.  Attend  lliese  men 
Our  pleasure? 

— They  are.  my  lord,  without  the  palace  gates 
— Bring  them  before  us — 
To  be  thus  is  nothing, 

But  to  be  safely  thus  : — 

***** 

Was  it  not  yesterday  we  spoke  together  ? 
— It  was,  so  please  your  highness. 

Well  then,  now 

Have  you  considered  of  my  speeches  ?     Know 
That  it  was  he,  in  the  times  past,  which  held  you 
So  under  fortune  ;  which,  you  thought  had  been 
Our  innocent  self;  this  I  made  good  to  you 
In  our  last  conference  ; 

"  We  are  men,  my  liege. 
— Ay,  in  the  catalogue  ye  go  for  men  : 
As  hounds  and  grey-hounds,  mongrels,  spaniels,  curs, 
Shoughs.  water-rugs,  and  demi-wolves  are  cleped 
All  by  the  name  of  dogs." 

It  is  with  a  feeling  of  humiliation  and  shame,  riot  to  speak  of 
less  passive  emotions,  that  I  find  myself  under  the  necessity  of 
inquiring  of  American  Senators,  and  for  an  audience  of  Ameri 
can  freemen — what  are  the  true  principles  which  should  preside 
over  the  organization  of  embryo  States  ?  Should  the  State  be 
a  community  and  commonwealth,  in  so  far  as  to  protect  all  its 
inhabitants  in  common  in  the  exercise  of  certain  "  inalienable 


25 

rights,"  such  as,  "  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness"? 
Should  the  ends  of  the  organization  be  to  give  this  protection 
to  all,  to  "  establish  justice  "  and  "  promote  the  general  welfare  "; 
or  should  the  organization  be  such  as  to  secure  these  ends  for  a 
part  only,  while  for  the  rest  it  gives  no  protection  to  these  rights; 
andybr  themt  promotes  injustice^  tyranny,  robbery,  oppression  ? 
As  I  said,  I  am  ashamed  to  ask  these  questions.  Let  what  fol 
lows  be  my  apology. 

The  "distinguished  Senator  from  Michigan"  says  : 

•'  I  concede,  as  I  have  said,  from  the  peculiar,  and  in  some  measure, 
undefined  relations  between  these  communities  (the  territories)  and 
the  general  Government,  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  Congress  must  in 
terfere  to  organise  governments." 

That  is,  it  is  the  duty  of  Congress  to  give  form  and  organiza 
tion  to  these  "  embryo  States."  Yet  if  Congress  should  so  inter 
fere  with  their  "internal  domestic  affairs,"  should  ordain  for 
them  such  organic  laws,  as  to  forbid  the  exercise,  in  relation  to 
a  part  of  their  people,  of  this  same  injustice  in  every  conceiva 
ble  form,  even  to  selling  their  wives  and  children,  nay  even  to 
breeding  their  children  for  market  as  the  most  "profitable  "  pro 
duct  of  the  soil;  the  Senator  says — 

"  There  is  no  human  intellect,  however  mighty  it  may  be,  which  can 
render  this  plea  of  tyranny  acceptable  to  the  American  people." 

Think,  -American  people,"  consider  of  the  "tyranny"  of  for 
bidding  any  gentleman  of  Nebraska  or  of  any  other  territory  of 
the  United  States, — the  -'tyranny"  !  !  of  depriving  him  of  the 
right  to  set  up  on  his  estate — a  stud  of  horses?  No.  An  estab 
lishment  for  the  improvement  of  short-horns  ?  No.  A  piggery? 
No.  A  human  brothel  wherewithal  to  breed  CHILDREN  for 
market  1-  Yes  !  !  !  Do  you  say,  Sir,  that  this  is  "one  of  the 
most  '  sacred  rights '  which  God  has  given  to  man"  ?  Do  you 
say,  sir,  of  this  right,  that  American  freemen  "  get  it  of  Almighty 
God"?  and  that  all  laws,  lines  and  landmarks,ought  to  be  removed 
which  forbid  or  impede  the  exercise  of  it  ?  That  is  precisely 
the  naked  thing  which  you  do  say,  Sir.  I  will  not  attempt  to 
characterize  it,  vsince  no  human  language  nor  all  human  lan 
guages  can  furnish  forth  the  words. 


26 

It  will  not  avail  you  Sir,  to  raise  the  cry  of  abolitionism!  mere 
abolitionism  !  No  ;  the  present  writer  has  never  been  an  abo 
litionist  ;  and  millions  of  northern  men  will  respond  to  his  sen 
timents  who  have  never  been  abolitionists.  But  you  and  your 
southern  allies  are  making  us  all  abolitionists.  Be  assured  you 
and  they  shall  have  abolitionism  to  your  heart's  content.  For 
shame  !  never  speak  more  of  abolition,  it  will  never  more  serve 
your  turn,  miserable  abolitionists  of  Freedom  ! 

But  "  the  Constitution  "  !  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
says  this  new  sect  of  abolitionists,  is  the  great  Charter  of  free 
dom  ;  of  freedom  to — to — will  not  some  devil  furnish  me  with 
nether  ink  to  write  it — to  make  slaves  of  our  fellow-men.  This 
interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  I  suppose  they  "  get  from  Al 
mighty  God,"  or  if  not,  He  is  not  permitted  to  enter  any  protest 
against,  or  to  legislate  "  in  derogation  of  it,"  at  least  in  the  Uni 
ted  States.  Indeed  how  should  He  with  His  reputation  for  un- 
changeableness  ;  for  have  not  the  people  of  the  territories  got  from 
Him  the  right  to  setup  those  establishments  for  the  propagation 
of  children  to  supply  the  southern  market  ? — if  they  deem  that 
sort  of  stock-raising  more  profitable  than  piggeries  '/ 

Our  Fathers  of  the  Revolution — if  for  very  shame  we  dare 
to  call  ourselves  their  children — when  they  had  determined  to 
resist  oppression,  in  justification  of  themselves  before  the  tribunal 
of  mankind,  made  a  Declaration  of  what  they  conceived  to  be 
the  natural  or  inherent  rights  of  man  ;  and  then  set  forth  the  vi 
olation  of  those  rights  in  regard  to  themselves,  as  the  sufficient 
reason  why  they  ought  to  be  absolved  from  their  allegiance  to  the 
King  of  Great  Britain.  This  Declaration  as  it  will  probably  be 
new  to  many  reader  s,  I  beg  leave  to  quote  : 

"  We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident  ;  that  all  men  are  created 
equal  ;  that  they  (all  men)  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain 
inalienable  rights  ;  that  among  these  are  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness.  That  to  secure  these  rights  (for  all  men)  governments 
are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent 
(not  the  weakness)  of  the  governed." 


27 

And  among  the  violations  of  these  rights  as  set  forth  in  the 
original  draft  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  were  the  fol 
lowing  : 

"  He  (the  King)  has  waged  cruel  war  against  human  nature  itself;  vio 
lating  its  most  sacred  rights  of  life  and  liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  dis 
tant  people  who  never  offended  him  ;  captivating  and  carrying  them 
into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to  incur  miserable  death  in  their 
transportation  thither.  This  piratical  warfare,  the  opprobrium  of  infidel 
powers,  is  the  warfare  of  the  Christian  King  of  Great  Britain.  De 
termined  to  keep  open  a  market  where  men  should  be  bought  and  sold, 
he  has  prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing  every  legislative  at 
tempt  (of  the  colonies)  to  prohibit  or  restrain  this  execrable  commerce" 
(Madison  Papers  p.  24.) 

The  reason  why  this  part  of  the  declaration  was  not  retained, 
Mr.  Jefferson  informs  us.  was  the  following  : 

':  The  clause  reprobating  the  enslaving  the  inhabitants  of  Africa 
was  struck  out  in  compliance  to  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  who  had 
never  attempted  to  restrain  the  importation  of  slaves,  (as  all  the  other 
colonies  had)  and  who  on  the  contrary,  still  wished  to  continue  it." 
(Madison  Papers,  p.  18.) 

Such  are  the  principles  which  the  men  of  the  Revolution  pro 
mulgated  :  and  after  fighting  for  them  and  winning  the  power 
to  govern  themselves  by  them,  they  attempted  accordingly,  to 
embody  them  in  a  Constitution  of  Government  ;  in  order,  as 
they  say — "to  form  a  more  perfect  union,  to  establish  justice  ; 
insure  domestic  tranquility,  provide  for  the  common  defence,  pro 
mote  the  general  welfare  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
ourselves  and  our  posterity." 

Based  upon  these  principles  of  the  '  inalienable  rights  "of 
<c  all  men,"  these  '"  great  fundamental  principles  of  self  govern 
ment  ;"  and  "  in  order  "  to  these  ends,  they  formed  n  national 
Constitution  ;  the  Constitution  of  the  United  Stales.  Nov.-  the 
better  to  understand  the  true  interest  and  meaning  of  this  Doc 
ument  on  the  point  under  consideration — if  any  except  wilful 
misunderstanding  be  possible — let  us  very  briefly  examine  fur 
ther  what  were  the  opinions  and  feelings  of  men  in  those  days, 
in  the  Convention  that  formed  the  Constitution,  on  the  subject  of 
slavery. 


28 

In  the  first  "plan  of  a  Federal  Constitution"  offered  to  the 
Convention  (by  Mr.  Randolph,  of  Va.)  there  is  no  allusion  to  the 
existence  of  slavery  expressed  or  implied.  The  slave-trade 
would  have  been  controlled  by  the  power  delegated  to  the  new 
government  "  to  regulate  commerce  with  all  nations  and  among 
the  several  States." 

After  discussing  this  and  some  other  plans,  during  eight  or 
nine  weeks,  the  whole  was  finally  referred  to  a  "  Committee  of 
Detail,"  at  the  head  of  which  was  Mr.  Rutledge,  of  South  Car 
olina.  In  the  Constitution,  as  reported  by  him,  first  appears 
(Article  VII.  Sec,  4.)  the  following  : 

"  No  tax  or  duty  shall  be  laid  by  the  Legislature  on 

nor  on  the  migration  or  importation  of  such  persons  as 

the  several  States  shall  think  proper  to  admit  ;  nor  shall  such 
migration  or  importation  be  prohibited"  When  this  Section 
came  up  in  Convention  in  its  turn,  it  called  forth  various  opin 
ions. 

"  MR.  L.  MARTIN  (Maryland)  proposed  to  vary  Article  VII.  Sec. 
4..  so  as  to  allow  a  prohibition  or  tax  on  the  importation  of  slaves.  In 
the  first  place,  as  five  slaves  are  to  be  reckoned  as  three  freemen  in  the 
appointment  of  Representatives,  such  a  clause  would  leave  an  encour 
agement  to  this  traffic.  In  the  second  place,  slaves  iceakened  one  part 
of  the  Union,  lohich  the  other  parts  ivere  bound  to  protect ;  the  privilege 
of  importing  them  was,  therefore,  unreasonable.  And  in  the  third 
place,  it  was  inconsistent  ivith  the  principles  of  the  Revolution,  and  dis 
honorable  to  the  American  character  to  have  such  a  feature  in  the  Con 
stitution." 

MR.  ELLSWORTH  (Ct.)  thought  this  matter  belonged  to  the  States 
themselves.  The  old  Confederation  had  not  meddled  with  this  point ; 
he  saw  no  greater  necessity  for  bringing  it  within  the  policy  of  the  new 
one.  (The  plan  of  many  members  at  this  time  was  merely  to  amend 
the  Articles  of  Confederation.) 

MR.  SHERMAN  (Ct.)  was  for  leaving  the  clause  as  it  stands.  He  ob 
served  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  seemed  to  be  going  on  in  the  United 
States,  and  that  the  good  sense  of  the  States  would,  probably,  by  de 
grees,  complete  it. 

COL.  MASON  ( Va  )  "  This  infernal  traffic  originated  in  the  avarice 
of  British  merchants.  The  present  question  concerns  not  the  import 
ing  States  alone,  but  the  whole  Union.  Slavery  discourages  arts  and 
manufactures — produces  the  most  pernicious  effects  on  manners. — 


29 

Every  master  of  slaves  is  bo?'n  a  petty  tyrant.  They  bring  the  judg 
ment  of  Heaven  upon  a  country.  As  nations  cannot  be  rewarded  or 
punished  in  the  next  world,  they  must  be  in  this.  As  to  the  States 
being  in  possession  of  the  right  to  import,  this  was  the  case  with  many 
other  rights,  now  to  be  properly  given  up.  He  held  it  essential  in 
every  point  of  view,  that  the  General  Government  should  have  the  pow 
er  to  prevent  the  increase  of  slavery." 

MR.  ELLSWORTH  (Ct )  ';  Let  us  not  intermeddle.  Slavery,  in  time, 
will  not  be  a  speck  in  our  country" 

Mr.  GERRY,  (Ms.)  "  thought  we  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  conduct  of 
the  States  as  to  slaves,  (slavery)  but  ought  to  be  careful  not  to  give  any 
sanction  to  it." 

MR.  DICKINSON  (Delaware)  "  considered  it  as  inadmissable,  on  every 
principle  of  honor  and  safety,  that  the  importation  of  slaves  should  be 
authorized  to  the  States  by  the  Constitution." 

MR.  LANGDON  (N.  H.)  ^ivas  strenuous  for  giving  the  power  to  the 
General  Government.  He  could  not,  with  a  good  conscience,  leave  it 
with  the  States." 

MR.  RANDOLPH  (Va  )  u  could  never  agree  to  the  clause  as  it  stands. 
(0,  noble  Virginian  !)  He  ivould  sooner  risk  the  Constitution." 

MR.  SHERMAN  (Ct.)  "  was  opposed  to  a  tax  on  slaves  imported,  as 
making  the  matter  worse,  because  it  implied  they  were  property  " 

"  It  was  argued  that,  on  the  contrary,  we  ought  rather  to  prohibit 
expressly  in  our  Constitution  the  further  importation  of  slaves  ;  and  to 
authorize  the  General  Government,  from  time  to  time  to  make  such 
regulations  as  should  be  thought  most  advantageous  for  the  gradual  ab 
olition  of  slavery  and  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  which  are  already 
in  the  States.  That  slavery  is  inconsistent  with  the  genius  of  Repub 
licanism,  and  has  a  tendency  to  destroy  those  principles  on  which  it  is 
supported,  (as  witness  Nebraska  debates)  as  it  lessens  the  sense  of  the 
equal  rights  of  mankind  and  habituates  us  to  tyranny  and  oppression. 
(Secret  Proceedings  and  Debates  of  the  Convention,  1787.) 

Such  was  the  tone  of  sentiment  from  all  the  States  with  the 
exception  of  Georgia,  North  Carolina,  and  South  Carolina  es 
pecially,  which  was  as  obstinate  and  perverse  as  she  has  been 
ever  since. 

MR.  BALDWIN  (Ga.)  "  had  conceived  national  objects  alone  to  be  be 
fore  the  Convention ;  not  such  as,  like  the  present,  were  of  a  local  na 
ture.  Georgia  was  decided  on  this  point.  If  left  to  herself  she  may 
probably  put  a  stop  to  the  evil." 


30 

MR.  PINCKNEY  (South  Carolina)  "  can  never  receive  the  plan  if  it 
prohibits  the  slave  trade." 

GENERAL  PINCKNEY  (S.  C.)  "  sliould  consider  a  rejection  of  the  clause 
as  an  exclusion  of  South  Carolina  from  the  Union." 

Several  members  expressing  the  opinion  that  it  was  better  to 
compromise  than  to  reject  the  clause  at  the  risk  of  losing  the 
three  Southern  States,  it  was  committed,  with  some  other  things, 
to  a  Committee  of  eleven,  who  advised  that  the  importation  of 
slaves  should  be  allowed  until  1800.  The  report  of  the  Com 
mittee  of  eleven  being  taken  up, 

GENERAL  PINCKNEY  moved  to  strike  out  the  words  "  the  year  eigh 
teen  hundred,"  as  the  year  limiting  the  importation  of  slaves ;  and  to 
insert  the  words  "  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  eight." 

MR.  MADISON.  "  Twenty  years  will  produce  all  the  mischief  that  can 
be  apprehended  from  the  liberty  to  import  slaves.  So  long  a  term 
will  be  more  dishonorable  to  the  American  character,,  than  to  say  no 
thing  about  it  in  the  Constitution." 

GENERAL  PINCKNEY'S  motion  having  passed  in  the  affirm 
ative, 

Mr.  GOUVERNEUR  MORRIS  (Pa.)  "  was  for  making  the  clause  read  at 
once"  the  importation  of  slaves  into  North  Carolina,South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  shall  not  be  prohibited  "  &c.  He  wished  it  to  be  known  that 
this  part  of  the  Constitution  was  a  compliance  with  those  States. 

The  next  question  was,  whether  the  slaves  to  be  imported 
should  be  taxed. 

MR.  SHERMAN  <;  was  against  it  as  acknowledging  men  to  be  pro 
perty." 

MR.  MADISON  {;  thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in  the  Constitution  the 
idea  that  there  could  he  property  in  men." 

This  matter  of  the  "  migration  or  importation,  of  such  per 
sons  as  any  of  the  States  now  existing  shall  think  proper  to  ad 
mit"  being  disposed  of — mark  the  fastidiousness  of  the  lan 
guage  ;  the  instinctiveshrinking  of  the  Constitution  from  the  con 
tamination  of  the  very  word  slave — we  hear  no  more  of  slavery 
in  the  convention  until, Article  XIV.  of  the  report  of  the  Commit 
tee  of  Detail  coming  up, 

GENERAL  PINCKNEY  "was  not  satisfied  with  it.  He  seemed  to  wish 
some  provision  should  be  included  in  favor  of  property  in  slaves." 

Article  XV  being  then  taken  up — 


31 

MR.  BUTLER  and  MR.  PINCKNHY  (S.  C.)  moved  to  require  "fugitive 
slaves  and  servants  to  be  delivered  up  like  criminals." 

MK.  WILSON  (Pa.)  "  This  would  oblige  the  Executive  of  the  State 
to  do  it,  at  the  public  expense." 

MR.  SHERMAN  (Ct.)  u  saw  no  more  propriety  in  the  public  seizing 
and  surrendering  a  slave  or  servant  than  a  horse." 

MR.  BUTLER  withdrew  the  motion  and  afterwards  presented 
that  clause  of  the  Constitution  which  has  been  expanded  into 
the  present  fugitive  slave  law.  It  is  as  follows  : 

"  No  person  held  to  service  or  labor  in  one  State,  under  the  laws 
thereof,  escaping  into  another,  shall  in  consequence  of  any  law,  or  reg 
ulation  therein,  be  discharged  from  such  service  or  labor ;  but  shall  be 
delivered  up,  on  claim  of  the  party  to  whom  such  service  or  labor  may 
be  due."  (Madison  Papers,  pp.  1388  to  1396,  1427-8,  1447-8,  1456.) 

The  three  fifths  ratio  of  representation  for  slaves  has  proper 
ly  nothing  to  do  with  slavery.  The  slaves  here  were  consider 
ed  as  persons,  not  as  property.  It  originated  in  this  way.  The 
theory  in  the  Convention  was  that  property  ought  to  be  represent 
ed  as  well  as  persons,  or  rather  in  preference  to  persons,  (for  the 
English  way  of  thinking  still  prevailed)  especially  as  they  were 
thinking  at  the  same  time  of  direct  taxes,  as  under  the  Confed 
eration.  "  Representatives  and  direct  taxes  shall  be  apportion 
ed,  &c."  The  great  question  then  was  how  to  arrive  at  a  just 
comparative  estimate  of  the  property  or  wealth  of  the  different 
States.  After  much  debate  it  was  finally  concluded  that  the 
number  of  inhabitants  was  the  fairest  measure  of  the  wealth  of 
a  State.  But  it  was  immediately  objected  by  the  South  that  a 
slave  did  not  produce  as  much  wealth  as  a  free  man.  How 
much  could  he  produce  then,  in  comparison  with  a  free  man? 
Some  said  one  quarter,  some  said  one  third,  some  said  one  half, 
&c.,  the  South  rating  him  low,  and  the  North  rating  him  high, 
both  thinking  of  direct  taxes  and  forgetting  votes  in  Congress. 
Finally  it  was  agreed  that  three-fifths  of  the  "  all  other  persons  " 
(for  the  Constitution  spewed  at  the  word  "slave")  should  be 
counted — a  hard  bargain  for  the  South,  according  to  what  was 
expected,  but  a  miserable  one  for  the  North  as  it  has  turned  out. 
(Madison  Papers,  pp.  423,  430,  431.  Secret  Debates,  pp.  42-3.) 

The  relation  of  the  Constitution  to  slavery  is  to  be  determined 
wholly  from  these  two  clauses,  viz  : — that  which  empowers  Con- 


32 

gress  to  prohibit  the  migration  or  importation  of  certain  persons 
after  the  year  1808;  and  that  which  prohibits  the  States  to  dis 
charge  certain  persons,  escaping  into  them,  from  service  or  labor 
due  by  the  laws  of  the  State  from  which  they  escaped. 

From  these  two  clauses,  illustrated  by  the  debates  in  the  Con 
vention,  I  think  that  uvo  things  are  plain  beyond  all  honest 
doubt.  First,  that  within  the  tlicn  existing  States  whose  law 
tolerated  slavery,  the  Constitution  agreed  to  leave  it  exclusively 
under  the  "  lex  loci  "  or  local  law,  to  which  its  own  jurisdiction 
did  riot  extend.  Second — that  every  where  else,  wherever  it 
had  jurisdiction,  it  claimed  the  right —  which  it  agreed  to  waive 
for  twenty  years,  in  relation  to  certain  States  then  existing — 
(mark  the  words)  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves.  Let  us 
look  at  this  clause  again — "The  migration  or  importation  of 
such  persons  as  any  of  the  States,  now  existing,  shall  think  pro 
per  to  admit,  shall  not  be  prohibited,"  &c. 

Is  it  not  manifest,  from  the  wording  of  this  clause,  that  the 
Constitution  had  power,  at  any  time  after  its  ratification,  to  pro 
hibit  the  "  migration  or  importation"  of  slaves  into  any  new  State? 
much  more  into  any  territory  belonging  to  the  nation,  in  regard  to 
which  it  gives  power  to  "  make  all  needful  rules  and  regula 
tions."  How  then  are  slaves  to  get  into  a  new  State  or  into  the 
Territories,  against  the  will  of  Congress,  if  the  Constitution  gives 
it  power  to  prohibit  their  <;  migration  "  thither  from  other  States, 
and  their  "  importation  "  from  other  countries  ?  or  if  any  object  to 
this  legitimate  use  of  the  word  '  migration.*'  the  power  of  Congress 
to  regulate  commerce  between  the  States  amounts  to  the  same 
thing.  Certainly  here  is  power  enough  to  prohibit  slavery  any 
where  and  every  where  outside  of  such  of  the  old  thirteen  as  are 
riowslaveholding.But  let  it  be  admitted  that  the  Constitution  gives 
no  power  to  prohibit  slavery,  or  at  least  does  not  require  Con 
gress  to  exercise  that  power, — it  will  not  help  the  pro-slavery 
argument.  The  true  question  is,  does  it  give  power  to  make 
slavery  legal  where  it  is  not  so  ?  That  is  the  question.  Will 
"the  distinguished  Senator  from  Michigan"  who,  being  a  law 
yer,  knows  well  enough  that  that  is  the  true  question,  have  the 
goodness  to  inform  mankind  in  what  Article,  Section  or  clause 
of  the  Constitution  is  to  be  found  the  power  to  legalize  slavery, 


33 

to  initiate  it,  where  it  is  not?  But  can  it  become  legal  in  any 
territory  of  the  United  States  if  Congress  does  not  legalize  it — 
notwithstanding  the  contemptible were  it  not  for  the  infa 
mous  purpose  of  it — drivelingly  contemptible  Nebraska  sophis 
try  of  legislating  neither  one  way  nor  the  other?  The  truth  is, 
there  never  was  or  can  be  a  stronger  anti-slavery  document  than 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  all  cases  and  relations 
where  it  has  jurisdiction,  both  in  fact  and  in  the  intention  of  its 
framers.  Even  the  miserable  fugitive  from  labor  clause,  worthy 
offspring  of  South  Carolina,  is  a  mere  treaty  between  the  States, 
as  such,  that  in  regard  to  these  fugitives  from  labor,  the  natural 
effect  of  free  soil  to  make  free  men  should  not  take  place.  No 
purpose  in  those  who  admitted  it,  to  nationalise  slavery  can  be 
inferred  from  it — it  is  a  mere  inter-State  police  regulation.  Be 
sides,  it  was  expected  that  slavery  was  to  be  a  temporary  evil, 
that  soon  it  "would  not  be  a  speck  in  our  country."  Hence  the 
fastidiousness  of  the  Constitution  in  its  language.  It  was  not  to 
be  contaminated  even  by  contact  with  the  odious  words  "  slave  " 
and  "  slavery." 

But  according  to  the  heaven- descended  ("get  it  from  Almigh 
ty  God")  interpretation  of  this  new  "divine-right"  sect  of  Aboli 
tionists  of  freedom,  the  meaning  of  the  framers  of  the  Consti 
tution  and  of  the  Constitution  itself,  may  be  logically  and  cor 
rectly  paraphrased  thus: — Whereas,  we  hold  it  to  be  self-evi 
dent  that  all  men  are  created  equal,  in  that  they  are  all  equally 
endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights,  such 
as  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ;  and  that  to  secure 
these  rights,  governments  are,  or  should  be,  instituted  among 
men ; — and  whereas,  the  present  King  of  Great  Britain  has 
grossly  violated  these  rights,  among  other  methods,  by  waging 
cruel  war  against  human  nature  itself,  violating  its  most  sacred 
rights  of  life  and  liberty  by  a  piratical  warfare,  the  shame  even 
of  infidels,  for  the  purpose  of  capturing  and  carrying  men  into 
slavery  ;  and  being  determined  to  keep  open  a  market  where 
men  may  be  bought  and  sold,  has  vetoed,  by  shameful  prostitu 
tion  of  his  prerogative,  the  frequent  legislative  attempts  of  these 
Colonies  to  prohibit  or  restrain  this  execrable  commerce  ;  and 
whereas,  We,  the  people  of  the  United  States  having,  by  our 

5 


34 

treasure  and  our  blood,  asserted  these  fundamental  principles 
and  successfully  resisted  these  violations  of  them,  do  now  enact 
this  our  Constitution  of  national  government  in  order  to  estab 
lish  justice,  promote  the  general  welfare  and  secure  the  blessings 
of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity;—  —therefore,  it  shall 
and  may  be  lawful,  and  a  "great  fundamental  principle  of  self- 
government,"  in  all  new  communities  or  "  embryo  States  "or 
ganized  by  and  under  this  our  national  government,  in  any  of 
the  territories  of  the  same,  for  the  people  of  the  said  "  embryo 
States  "  to  declare,  have,  hold  and  treat  as  slaves,  with  all  their 
posterity  forever,  such  and  so  many  of  the  inhabitants  thereof 
as  they,  in  the  arrangement  of  their  "internal  domestic  affairs," 
shall  deem  for  their  interest  and  profit.  And  it  shall  and  may 
be  lawful  for  the  said  people  to  "  keep  open  markets  where  men 
may  be  bought  and  sold,"  and  in  all  other  respects  to  possess  the 
said  slaves,  their  wives  and  children  as  property  'o  all  intents 
and  purposes,  and  to  use  the  same  for  any  purpose  "  profitable  " 
to  themselves,  unrestrained  by  any  "  politico-metaphysical"  con 
sideration  of  the  inalienable  rights  "  with  which  "  all  men  "  have 
been  "  endowed  by  their  Creator." 

There,  brother  dough-faces,  is  a  fac- simile  of  the  Nebraska 
logic.  Is  it  not  admirable  ?  and  intended  specially  for  northern 
latitudes.  Is  it  not  complimentary  to  our  understandings  ? 
Well  !  we  have  had  a  "great  Expounder  of  the  Constitution  " 
—he  is  dead.  Peace  to  his  spirit,  if  the  Ex-Gov.  will  let  it 
alone.  And  now,  so  rapidly  has  it  fallen  into  dilapidation, 
we  have  a  great  Restorer  of  the  Constitution.  The  Nebraska 
captain — if  the  brother  too  near  the  throne  does  not  dim  his 
honors — is  henceforth  the  lord  of  constitutional  logic.  Like  all 
great  orators  too,  he  has  the  power  of  adapting  himself  to  his 
audience.  For  is  not  his  logic  well  suited  to  the  comprehension 
of  men  who  could  be  made  to  believe  that  the  simple  under 
standing  between  the  States,  expressed  by  the  Constitution,  that 
if  a  slave  should  stray  from  the  one  to  the  other  and  the  owner 
should  come  to  look  for  him,  as  he  might  for  his  horse  or  his 
cows,  he  should  be  permitted  to  take  him  away — who  I  say? 
could  be  made  to  believe  that  this  agreement  is  capable  of  being 
transmuted  into  the  infamous  fugitive  slave  law,  which  makes 


35 

us,  according  to  the  threat  of  AT.  Cheves,  and  before  the  disso 
lution  of  the  Union,  a  "  police  at  our  peril,  to  prevent  the  escape 
of  southern  slaves"  ;  and,  more  damning  infamy  still,  makes  the 
national  government  the  perpetual  head  of  this  interesting  po 
lice  department,  backed  by  the  whole  power  of  the  United 
States  ?  Now  why  should  not  we,  who  have  consented  to  be 
lieve  that  all  this  is  in  the  Constitution,  be  supposed  equally 
ready  to  believe  that  the  right  ! — yes,  backed  by  the  "  divine 
right''  !  "  got  from  the  Almighty"  ! — to  cultivate  brothel  produce 
in  Nebraska  for  southern  consumption  ;  and  to  "keep  open  a  mar 
ket  there  where  men  may  be  bought  and  sold,"  yes,  and  women 
and  children  besides,  is  also  in  the  Constitution  ?  Arid  to  all 
this  is  not  the  blotting  out  of  the  Missouri  compromise  line — 
advocated  by  arguments  so  insulting  that  no  man  would  reply 
to  them  except  by  a  blow — a  legitimate  and  logical  conclusion  ? 
if  we  will  not  resent  a  kick,  ought  not  we  to  be  expected  to 
quietly  permit  ourselves  to  be  spit  upon  ?  yes,  spit  upon  ; 
certainly  we  are  expected  to  submit  quietly  to  that.  For 
what  is  the  answer  of  these  abolitionists  of  freedom  to  the 
protest  of  outraged  humanity,  of  indignant  honesty,  of  in 
sulted  honor  ?  Why,  says  that  degenerated  descendant  of  the 
beast  that  bore  Balaam — according  to  the  pedigree  given  him  by 
"the  distinguished  Senator  from  Michigan" — that  wisdom  from 
the  Wabash  !  worthy  spokesman  !  there  is  no  occasion  for  emo 
tion.  I  have  ascertained  for  your  comfort,  poor  fanatics  !  that 
the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  are  a  "  a  self- 
evident  lie." 

But  the  opponents  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  says  the  great  captain 
of  the  abolitionists  of  freedom,  speaking  "from  that  bad  emi 
nence." — 

"  Do  not  meet  the  issue  boldly  and  fairly  and  controvert  the  sound 
ness  of  this  great  principle  of  popular  sovereignty  in  obedience  to  the 
Constitution.  They  know  full  well  that  this  was  the  principle  upon 
which  the  colonies  separated  from  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  "  &c. — 
'•  It  is  apparent  that  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  its  origin  in 
the  violation  of  that  great  fundamental  principle  which  secured  to  the 
people  of  the  colonies  the  right  to  regulate  their  own  domestic  affairs 
in  their  own  way.  Abolitionism  (he  is  speaking,  simple  reader,  of 


36 

the  abolitionism  which  would  diminish  slavery  and  the  infinite  oppres 
sions  inseparable  from  it,  not  of  that  of  his  own  sect,  the  abolitionists 
of  freedom — as  you  might  suppose)  proposes  to  destroy  the  right,  and 
extinguish  the  principle,  for  which  our  forefathers  waged  a  seven  years, 
bloody  war,"  &c.,  &c.,  to  the  end  of  the  chapter.  (See  Douglas  on 
Nebraska.) 

The  gentleman  seems  fond  of  principle  ;  especially  of  fun 
damental  principles  ;  and  particularly  of  great  fundamental 
principles.  What,  then,  is  the  great  fundamental  principle  of 
"The  Bill"?  Why,  to  institute  slavery  under  the  Constitu 
tion  \  "in  obedience  to  the  Constitution"!  the  great,  and  vener 
able,  and  long  established  principle  that  "might  makes  right"!  ! 
"To  this  complexion  must  it  come  at  last,"  turn  it  in  what  light 
you  please.  And  yet  he  dares  to  appeal  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  and  to  the  assertion  of  the  "forefathers"  of  the 
right  to  resist  oppression,  as  implying,  for  the  children,  the 
right  to  inflict  oppression  ten  thousand-fold  more  severe  than 
that  which  their  fathers  resisted.  The  fathers  rebelled  because 
theirgovernment  interfered  with  their  domestic  affairs  by  thrusting 
slaves  upon  them  ;  therefore  the  children  have  the  inherent  right 
of  all  freemen  to  institute  slavery.  This  man  has  dared  to  use 
the  language  of  the  men  of  the  Revolution  and  impudently  to 
ask  us  to  believe  that  it  means  the  same  thing  as  it  did  in  their 
mouths,  when  applied  to  his  own  infamous  purpose  !  !  dough 
faces  ?  yes,  and  putty-brains  !  !  if  this  logic  deludes  us.  Cer 
tainly  he  takes  us  for  cravens  not  only,  fit  to  be  spit  upon,  but 
idiots  also — or  he  is  himself  one. 

But  besides  "  the  great  fundamental  principle  of  self -govern 
ment"  which  of  course  is  amply  sufficient,  there  are  other  small 
reasons,  comparatively  small,  not  essential,  but  useful  to  fill  up 
the  chinks  of  the  argument,  of  themselves  pretty  good  reasons, 
why  the  Missouri  Compromise  line  should  be  blotted  out. 

Pirst. — The  whole  territory  north  of  that  line  is  wholly  una- 
dapted  to  slavery  and  nobody  expects  any  slaves  will  ever  go 
there. 

Messrs.  D.,  C.  &  Co.,  have  merely  taken  it  into  their  heads  to 
enact  an  abstraction — so  fond  are  they  of  principle,  especially 
of  a  fundamental  principle  ;  for  instance^  that  all  freemen  have 


37 

an  inherent  and  inalienable  right  "  from  Almighty  God,"  if  they 
choose  to  exercise  it,  to  have  and  to  hold  slaves.  But  then  no 
body  thinks  of  exercising  it  in  such  a  northern  region  as  Ne 
braska  -,  any  more  than  it  was  thought  of  in  Europe  formerly, 
when  slavery  was  common  in  some  other  parts  of  the  world. 
Nobody  thinks  of  setting  up  any  slave-breeding  establishment 
there,  any  more  than  they  do  in  Virginia.  That  is  one  reason 
for  Wotting  out  the  line,  to  which,  certainly  even  "the  ignorant 
and  fanatical  masses  of  the  North  "  cannot  object.  There  is  a 
sugar-plum  for  you,  ye  three  thousand  intermeddling  parsons  of 
New  England,  so  go  to  your  studies  and  be  quiet. 

Second. — Slavery  is  not  what  it  was  when  the  Constitution 
was  formed. 

When  MARTIN  thought  it  "dishonorable  to  the  American 
character  to  have  such  a  feature  in  the  Constitution"; 

When  MASON  "  held  it  essential  in  every  point  of  view  that 
the  General  Government  should  have  the  power  to  prevent  the 
increase  of  slavery  "  ; 

When  GERRY  thought  they  "ought  to  be  careful  not  to  give 
any  sanction  to  it"  ; 

When  Mr.  DICKINSON  thought  that  "  on  every  principle  of 
honor  and  safety"  the  States  ought  not  to  be  permitted  to  import 
slaves; 

When  Mr.  LANGDON  "could  not  with  a  good  conscience  leave 
it  with  the  States"  ; 

When  EDMUND  RANDOLPH  "  would  sooner  risk  the  Consti 
tution  " ; 

When  Mr.  SHERMAN  would  not  have  slaves  taxed  because  "it 
implied  they  were  property  "  ; 

When  Mr.  MADISON  "  thought  it  wrong  to  admit  in  the  Con 
stitution  the  idea  that  there  could  be  property  in  man  '' ;  and 
called  slavery  "  the  most  oppressive  dominion  ever  exercised  by 
man  over  man  "; 

When  PATRICK  HENRY  "detested  it — deplored  it  with  all  the 
pity  of  humanity  "  ; 

When  the  Committee  that  presented  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  JOHN  ADAMS.  BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN,  ROGER  SHER 
MAN,  ROBERT  R.  LIVINGSTON,  THOMAS  JEFFERSON,  thought  it 


38 

one  of  the  worst  crimes  of  the  British  King,  that  he  was  "  de 
termined  to  keep  open  a  market  where  men  may  be  bought  and 
sold  "  ; 

When  JEFFERSON  "  trembled  for  his  Country  as  often  as  he 
remembered  that  God  is  just  " — "  thought  however,  only  a  few 
could  be  found  who  would  deny  that  Slavery  ought  to  be  abol 
ished,  just  as  we  find  here  and  there  only,  a  robber  or  a  mur 
derer  " ; 

When  JAY  thought  slavery  was  an  "iniquity  which  the  gov 
ernment  should  seek  in  every  way  to  abolish  "  ;  that  "till  Amer 
ica  comes  into  this  measure,  her  prayers  to  heaven  will  be  im 
pious"  ; 

When  JOHN  ADAMS  thought  that  "  consenting  to  slavery  was 
a  sacrilegious  breach  of  trust"  ; 

When  HAMILTON  petitioned  for  those  "  who,  free  by  the  laws 
of  God,  are  held  in  slavery  by  the  laws  of  the  State  "  ; 

When  FRANKLIN  petitioned  Congress  "  that  it  would  be 
pleased  to  countenance  the  restoration  of  liberty  to  those  unhappy 
men,  who,  alone  in  this  land  of  Freedom,  are  degraded  into  per 
petual  bondage"; 

When  GOUVERNEUR  MORRIS  pronounced  domestic  slavery  a 
"nefarious  institution,  the  curse  of  heaven"  ; 

When  WASHINGTON  said  "  that  it  was  among  his  first  wishes 
to  see  some  plan  adopted  by  which  slavery  may  be  abolished  by 
law"; 

Slavery,  I  say,  is  not  what  it  was  when  such  men  held 
such  opinions.  Those  old  times  of  revolution  were  rough 
and  harsh.  Slave-owners  were  even  tyrannical  sometimes,  ac 
cording  to  Mason  and  Jefferson.  The  slaves  were  not  always 
properly  cared  for.  They  had  not,  at  that  time,  found  out  the 
use  of  blood-hounds  to  help  hunt  up  the  poor  creatures  when 
they  strayed  away,  so  that  they  might  not  starve  in  the 
swamps. 

And  then  they  had  not  discovered  the  modern  method  of 
shortening  their  term  of  service — the  commutation  for  ten  years 
system — by  finding  out  that  it  was  more  " profitable''  to  use 
them  up  in  that  time  and  buy  fresh  ones,  than  to  compel  them 
to  live  longer. 


39 

Now,  such,  in  seventy-five  years,  has  been  the  advance  of  civ 
ilization  and  philanthropy,  Slavery  has  become  a  grand  missiona 
ry  System,  (see  Nebraska  debates)  by  the  operation  of  which,  poor 
pagans,  brought  from  dark  heathendom  to  this  land  of  "  gospel 
light  and  liberty"  are  worked  over  into  pretty  fair  average 
Christians — some  of  them  quite  as  good  as  their  masters — and 
O,  admirable  economy  !  beautiful  plan  for  killing  two  birds  with 
one  stone  !  they  are  made  to  pay  the  expense  of  their  own  con 
version.  This  wondrous  invention,  except  that  unluckily  it  is 
not  new  enough  to  be  patentable,  might  be  monopolized  and 
sold  to  the  numerous  other  missionary  societies  for  enough  to 
enrich  the  whole  South.  What  a  vast  amount  of  cash,  and  how 
many  valuable  lives,  wasted  in  various  missionary  enterprises, 
might  be  saved  to  Christendom  by  sending  for  the  benighted 
idolaters,  buying  them  of  their  native  princes,  making  property 
of  them,  so  that  they  could  be  properly  controlled,  and  then  com 
pelling  them  to — "  work  out  their  own  salvation'1 !  What  mis 
erable  financiers,  for  instance,  were  the  managers  of  that  waste 
ful  corporation  which  planned  and  executed  the  Christianiza- 
tion  of  the  Sandwich  Islands  by  most  self-consuming  thirty 
years'  hard  work  on  the  part  of  their  agents,  and  sheer  money 
out  of  pocket  ;  whereas,  all  the  work  might  have  been  made  to 
come  out  of  the  Sandwich  Islanders"  themselves,  and  they,  the 
corporators,  meantime,  might  have  been  putting  money  into  their 
pockets.  Hence  the  Southern  lack  of  contribution  to  such  pro 
jects  of  converting  the  the  heathen  where  they  are.  The  South 
"  understands  her  own  interests  '  better.  The  South  takes  home 
the  heathen,  and  gives  them  the  quid  pro  quo,  gospel  for 
work,  according  to  the  commandment — "Freely  you  have  re 
ceived  ;  (that  is,  you  don't  pay  anything  for  the  work)  freely 
give."  And  behold  !  dear  reader,  what  the  South  "  gives  "—the 
free  gratis  gospel,  which  these  heathen,  who  are  working  out 
their  own  salvation,  get,  in  exchange  for  their  free  gratis  work. 

Specimen  of  a  Catechism  for  slaves  in  the  Southern  Episco 
palian^  Charleston,  S.  C.  : 

u  Who  keeps  the  snakes  and  all  bad  things  from  hurting  you? 

God  does. 

Who  gave  you  a  master  and  a  mistress  ? 

God  gave  them  to  me. 

Who  says  that  you  must  obey  them  ? 


40 


God  says  that  I  must. 

What  book  tells  you  these  things  ? 

The  Bible. 

How  does  God  do  all  his  work  f 

He  always  does  it  right. 

Does  God  love  to  work  ? 

Yes,  God  is  always  at  work. 

Do  the  good   angels  work  f 

Yes,  they  do  what  God  tells  them. 

Do  they  love  to  work  ? 

Yes,  they  love  to  please  God. 

What  does  God  say  about  your  work  ? 

He  that  will  not  work  shall  not  eat. 

What  makes  you  lazyl 

My  wicked  heart." 

What  "  Northern  fanatic,"  now,  will  say  that  this  is  not  a  fair 
trade?  head-work  for  hand-work.  And  the  teachings— this 
South  Carolina  gospel — how  admirably  adapted  to  the  very  cir 
cumstances  of  the  recipients  !  Such  advantage  has  the  South 
by  having  the  heathen  at  her  doors.  And  look  what  a  monthly 
saving  she  makes  by  it. 

Donations  to  one  of  the  great  missionary  charities  for  Feb 
ruary,  1854. 


NORTH. 
Maine, 

New  Hampshire, 
Vermont, 
Massachusetts, 
Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island, 
New  York, 
New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, 
Indiana, 
Illinois, 
Michigan, 
Wisconsin, 
Iowa, 


$1,154,27 

1,346,45 

998,36 

7,085,92 

2,297,93 

1,420,25 

15,318,52 

442,00 

681,46 

1,361,15 

178,61 

781,28 

645,34 

253,00 

34,00 


SOUTH. 

Delaware,  $320,00 

Dist.  of  Colurnbia,336,79 


Virginia, 

Georgia, 

South  Carolina, 

Missouri, 

Tennessee, 

Kentucky 

Louisiana, 


151,00 
32,50 

215,92 
25,00 
34,00 
15,00 
20,00 


Slave  States,     $1,150,21 
Other  slave  States  wanting. 


Free  States,         $33,898,60 


41 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  South  is  "  wise  and  prudent " — the 
South  has  "  ample  leisure  "  to  study  such  things.  There  is  but 
one  point  that  any  body  except  a  fanatic  can  complain  of;  and 
that  is,  that  when  she  has  christianized  these  people  according 
to  contract  and  got  her  pay  for  it,  she  does  not  let  them  go 
again,  but  keeps  them  ut  work  still.  However,  it  must  be  ad 
mitted  that  no  amount  of  labor  of  the  body  can  be  more  than 
a  fair  equivalent  for  the  salvation  of  the  soul !  Now  gentlemen, 
clergymen,  and  other  men,  who  have  taken  ignorant  umbrage  at 
the  Nebraska  bill,— all  that  "the  bill"  does,  all  that  Congress 
does,  since  "  as  a  matter  of  necessity,  Congress  must  interfere  to 
organize  "somehow  these  "embryo  States,"  is  to  legalize,  when 
requested  to  do  so,  in  uncertain  territories,  this  great,  happy 
combination,  at  the  same  time  labor-saving  and  soul-saving  in 
stitution  of  slavery,  "  in  obedience  to  the  Constitution,"  and  in 
accordance  with  the  "  great  fundamental  principle  of  self-gov 
ernment  ;"  and  "  as  a  mere  incident  of  it " — that  is,  in  order  that 
all  mankind  may  partake  of  the  benefits  of  it — be  free  to  make 
slaves — to  "  render  the  eighth  Section  of  the  Missouri  act  inop 
erative  and  void"  Certainly,  brethren  of  the  clergy,  you  have 
wholly  misunderstood  the  purpose  of  this  pious  institution,  or 
you  never  would  have  so  berated  "the  bill." 

Third.  The  arguments  of  the  champions  of  the  Nebraska  bill 
remind  one  of  a  bill  of  indictment  for  assault  and  battery,  which 
sets  forth  that  the  said  C.  D.  did  feloniously,  unlawfully,  wil 
fully  and  of  malice  aforethought,  threaten,  traduce,  quarrel  with, 
abuse,  assault,  beat,  strike,  cut,  stab,  wound,  and  evil-treat  the 
said  A.  B.  &c. 

They  mean  to  cover  the  whole  ground,  no  matter  how  incon 
sistent  one  part  of  the  declaration  is  with  another.  Sometimes 
slavery  is  a  blessed  thing,  worthy  to  be  taken  to  the  bosom  of 
all  Christian  communities  and  especially  adapted  to  the  internal 
domestic  relations  of  freemen.  Sometimes  it  is  not  as  bad  as 
represented ;  sometimes,  though  we  do  not  approve  it,  we  think 
those  who  choose,  have  a  right  to  adopt  it,  government  ought 
not  to  interfere  to  prevent  freemen  enslaving  their  neighbors  if 
they  wish,  they  are  the  judges  of  what  kind  of  labor  will  be 

most  profitable  ;  sometimes-,  if  slavery  be  wrong,  it  is  no  worse 

6 


42 

for  us  than  for  others,  we  are  justified  by  the  example  of  all  na 
tions,  slavery  has  existed  from  time  immemorial,  &c.  All  which 
being  interpreted  means — we  do  not  approve  of  wrong,  though 
we  do  not  dislike  it  as  much  as  some  people,  and  are  willing  to 
assist  others  to  practice  it ;  or — there  have  been  rascals  in  all 
ages,  and  we  have  the  same  right  to  be  such,  as  those  who  have 
gone  before  us. 

Fourth.  "  We  have  a  happy,  quiet,  contented  society"  (no  runaways, 
no  Nat  Turners)  while  "it  is  a  notorious  fact,that,  throughout  the  little 
corner  of  Europe  that  has  tried  this  foolish  experiment  (of  trying  to  do 
without  feudal  lords  and  serfs,  or  domestic  slavery  in  some  form,  dear 
dough-faces.)  the  class  on  whom  the  experiment  was  tried  are  ten 
times  worse  off  than  any  slaves  whatever." — {'Richmond  (Va)  Exam 
iner.) 

If  now  it  were  as  true  as  it  is,  on  the  contrary,  a  fla 
grant  lie,  that  you  had  succeeded  in  making  men  contented  with 
the  condition  and  character  of  beasts ;  that  you  had  succeeded 
in  divesting  men,  capable  of  the  aims  and  ends  of  MAN,  of  their 
entire  humanity — would  it  be  possible  to  bring  a  more  damning 
accusation  against  slavery  than  this?  this  same  infamous  apol 
ogy  for  it?  True  it  is  that  slavery  aims  at  that  consummation, 
and  is  to  be  judged  accordingly.  Does  not  all  the  world  know 
what  kind  of  mental  discipline,  by  the  aid  of  your  South  Caro 
lina  Catechisms,  you  hold  to  be  "  essential  to  the  very  existence" 
of  slavery  ? 

But  slaves  are  better  off  "  quotha'"  than  the  class  on  whom 
the  "  foolish  experiment "  of  freedom  has  been  tried,  who  "  run 
away  from  liberty." 

You  do  well  to  compare  them  with  men  who  are  still  drench 
ed  with  the  dregs,  and  blighted  by  the  ineradicable  curse,  en 
tailed  on  them  by  the  institutions  you  laud  so  highly.  Yet?  even 
so,  is  not  Hope,  at  least,  left  in  the  bottom  of  the  Cup  of  these 
men  ?  Have  they  not  left,  at  least,  the  liberty  "  to  run  away 
from  liberty  ?"  and  how  many,  do  you  think,  of  the  tens  of  thou 
sands  of  now  independent  American  citizens,  who  have  so  "run 
away,"  would  be  glad  to  return  to  what  you  call  "liberty  "  /  / 
Are  your  slaves  as  well  off  as  the  agricultural  laborers  of  New 


43 

England  ?  but  who  shall  dare  to  insult  the  sons  of  New  Eng 
land  farmers  by  such  an  infamous  comparison  ?  However,  our 
«  foolish  experiment"  is  not  yet  quite  three  centuries  old  ! 

Fifth.  Slavery  was  forced  upon  us,  thrust  into  our  "  internal 
domestic  affairs  "  against  our  entreaties  to  the  contrary.  Cer 
tainly,  that  is  cool  for  the  descendants  of  men  who  thrust  into 
the  Constitution  a  clause  forbidding  Congress  ever  to  prohibit 
the  slave-trade,  and  who  insisted  upon  its  remaining,  with  the 
threat  of  secession  from  the  Union.  (See  Madison  Papers,  pp. 
1389,  1393,)  and  who,  when  that  would  not  be  submitted  to,  en- 
treated  and  obtained  the  grace  of  non-prohibition  for  twenty 
years.  It  is  also  tolerably  cool,  not  to  say  impudent,  for  these 
same  descendants  now  to  assert  (see  speech  of  Gen.  Butler,  of 
S.  C.  in  the  Senate,)  that  a  compulsion  to  buy  more  slaves  for 
twenty  years  was  forced  upon  their  fathers  by  the  votes  of  the 
North,  because  the  North  (weakly  and  basely  I  grant,  for 
Virginia  would  not  yield,  nor  Delaware)  yielded  the  point  to 
threats  of  secession,  and  entreaties,  because  "  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  cannot  do  without  slaves  " yielded  as  she  al 
ways  has  since,  and  never  will  again. 

Sixth.  There  will  be  none  the  more  slaves  because  they  are 
permitted  to  go  into  the  territories  and  they  will  be  much  better 
off  than  to  confine  them  where  they  are.  So,  being  prompted 
by  the  gods,  says  "  the  distinguished  Senator  from  Michigan." 
Amen  !  piously  responds  all  slavedom  !  There  is  another  su 
gar  plum  for  you,  philanthropic  dough-faces  of  the  softest  con 
sistency  !  Which  being  broken,  the  motto  reads  thus  :  "Slave 
ry  must  have  room,  we  must  give  it  vent,  it  must  spread  or  per 
ish."  Precisely  so,  gentlemen,  who,  "  as  a  mere  incident,"  "  as 
a  mere  incident"  ! !  have  "  rendered  the  eighth  Section  of  the 
Missouri  act  inoperative  and  void."  That  is,  have  pulled  down 
the  fence  for  slavery  to  go  wherever  it  may  choose.  Because 
why?  it  is  much  more  profitable  to  sell  tnem,  than  to  emanci 
pate  any  dangerous  excess  of  slave  population.  "  There  will 
be  none  the  more  slaves."  "  Tell  that  to  the  marines,"  and  "  to 
the  distinguished  Senator  from  Michigan." 

Would  there  have  been  as  many  slaves  as  there  are  now  if,  at 
the  time  of  the  formation  of  the  Constitution,  there  had  been  in- 


44 

serted  in  it,  as  there  probably  might  have  been,  a  clause  for  the 
gradual  abolition  of  slavery  in  all  the  States  except  the  three,  in 
compliance  with  which  Gouverneur  Morris  "  wished  it  to  ba 
known"  that  a  certain  other  Article  was  inserted  ?  The  differ 
ence  is,  where  the  shoe  pinches  is,  that  if  slavery  is  circumscrib 
ed,  you  must  get  rid  of  your  slaves  at  any  rate,  and  in  the  oth 
er  case  you  can  exchange  them  for  cash.  It  is  extremely  de 
sirable  therefore,  besides  increasing  your  political  power,  "  to 
keep  open  a  market  where  men  may  be  bought  and  sold."  Pre 
cisely  so,  gentlemen,  voila,  at  last,  the  genuine  cat  let  out  of  the 
bag !  that  is  the  very  animal  which  lay  rolled  up  in  the  fine 
flour  of  "  the  great  fundamental  principle"  "  which  our  fathers 
contended  for  in  a  seven  years'  bloody  war" !  You  know  as 
well  as  anybody,  yes,  better  than  any  body,  you  who  think 
yourselves  concealed  behind  the  flimsy  curtain  of — "  Sir,  the 
South  did  not  introduce  this  question  here,"  that  if  slavery  is 
shut  up,  the  fate  awaits  it  which  is  said  to  happen  to  certain 
weeds  ;  which  are  so  noisome  that,  if  there  are  many  together, 
they  presently  stink  themselves  to  death.  You  have  yourselves 
brought  this  intolerable  curse  upon  yourselves,  knowing  as  your 
own  records  abundantly  show,  that  offences,  whether  against  the 
law  of  moral  or  of  political  righteousness — and  this  is  both — 
necessarily  involve  the  ruin  of  the  offender.  When  it  was  eas 
ily  in  your  power,  by  the  exercise  of  a  little  manly  energy — 
which  alas !  slavery  takes  quite  away  and  substitutes  for  it  bru 
tal  ferocity — to  put  away  the  evil  from  you  as  the  North  did, 
you  refused  even  at  the  entreaties  and  warnings  of  your  own 
fathers  to  do  so  ;  and  now  you  think  it  a  most  unheard-of  cruel 
ty  if  you  may  not  thrust  upon  those  who  were  wiser,  the  just 
consequences  to  yourselves  of  your  own  obstinate  folly.  You 
need  talk  no  more  to  us  of  the  British  King  inflicting  this  mis 
erable  cancer  upon  your  vitals ;  of  northern  votes  forcing  it  up 
on  you.  If  the  King  "  determined  to  keep  open  a  market  where 
men  should  be  bought  and  sold  ";  did  he  compel  you  to  buy 
them  ?  If  a  few  northern  wretches  carried  slaves  to  you,  was 
it  not  because  you  tempted  them  by  the  offer  of  high  prices  ? 
Was  it  northern  votes  which  forced  South  Carolina  to  insist  on 
making  the  Constitution  a  perpetual  charter  for  the  slave-trade, 


45 

or  for  twenty  years  at  the  very  least?  South  Carolina!  who  was 
bom  and  bred  and  "  raised"  in  slavery,  and  loves  it  as  a  buzzard 
loves  carrion.     South  Carolina  !  which  has  always  been  a  fire 
brand  in  the  Union  and  will  yet  consume  it.     Yes,  you  must 
have  drains  and  cess-pools  for  this  filth  of  yours  to  flow  into. 
You  must,  moreover,  CRUSH  OUT   northern  fanaticism  and  take 
entire  control  of  the  government,  in  such  wise  that,  if  there  is 
dissolution  of  the  Union,  the  North  must  secede  and  leave  you 
to  be  "The  United  States  of  America."  That  you  well  under 
stand — and  so  do  we.     Hence  the  Nebraska-Kansas  bill — hence 
the  "  mere  incident  of  it ;"  the  "  mere  incident  of  it  "// — hence 
Texas — hence  a  second  and  a  third  slice  of  Mexico — hence  Cu 
ban  forays  and  Spanish  quarrels.     More,  more,  your  cry  is  still 
for  more.     You  must  have  States,  you  must  have  votes  in  the 
Senate  ;  since  you  can  never  hope  for  a  majority  of  slave-hold 
ing  votes  in  the  House,  and  dough-faces,  there  may,  at  some  fu 
ture  time,  prove  an  uncertain  crop.     Do  you  ask  why  the  South 
is  not  as  much  entitled  to  control  the  Government  as  the  North? 
In  regard  to  all  other  subjects  you  have  the  same  right  as  the 
North,  in  proportion  to  your  population  ;   but  in  regard  to  your 
"  peculiar  custom"  you  have  not  and  never  can  acquire  any 
right  whatever,  beyond  the  limits  of  your  own  police-jurisdic 
tion  (and  there  you  have  only  the  right  of  the  strongest).     Be 
cause  Freedom  is  the  rule,  by  the  law  of  Nature  ;  Slavery  is  the 
exception,  by  the  law  of  Force.     By  the  same  laws,  Freedom  is 
universal,  Slavery  is  local.     Freedom  is  general ;  Slavery  is  par 
ticular.     And  these  things  are  so   because,  while  Freedom  is 
morally  and  politically  right  and  a  virtue ;  Slavery  is  morally 
and  politically  wrong  and  a  crime;  or,  as  the  Frenchman  said, 
—which  may  be  a  stronger  way  to  put  it  to  authors  of  South 
Carolina  Catechisms  and  the  "no  religion  and  humanity"  party 
— "it  is  worse  than  a  crime ;  it  is  a  blunder." 

Men  of  the  North,  listen  to  the  rally-notes  of  the  old  slavery- 
trumpet,  still  true  to  her  nature,  still  foremost  in  the  ranks  of 
this  shame. 

From  the  Southern  Standard  published  at  Charleston,  South 
Carolina. 

"  A  general  rupture  iu  Europe  would  force  upon  us  the  undisputed 


46 

sway  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  West  Indies,  with  all  their  rich 
and  mighty  productions.  Guided  by  our  genius  and  enterprise,  a  new 
world  would  rise  there,  as  it  did  before  under  the  genius  of  Columbus. 
With  Cuba  and  St.  Domingo  we  could  control  the  productions  of  the 
tropics  and  with  them  the  commerce  of  the  world  and  with  that  the 
power  of  the  world.  Our  true  policy  is  to  look  to  Brazil  as  the  next 
great  Slave  power  and  as  the  Government  that  is  to  direct  or  license 
the  development  of  the  country  drained  by  the  Amazon.  Instead  of 
courting  England,  we  should  look  to  Brazil  and  the  West  Indies.  The 
time  will  come  when  a  treaty  of  commerce  and  alliance  with  Brazil  will 
give  us  the  control  over  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  its  border  countries, 
together  with  the  Islands,  and  the  consequence  of  this  will  place  Afri 
can  slavery  beyond  the  reach  of  fanaticism  at  home  or  abroad.  These 
two  great  slave-powers  now  hold  more  undeveloped  territory  than  any 
other  two  Governments,  and  they  ought  to  guard  and  strengthen  their 
mutual  interests  by  acting  together  in  strict  harmony  and  concert. — 
Considering  our  vast  resources  and  the  mighty  commerce  that  is  about 
to  expand  on  the  bosom  of  the  two  countries,  if  we  act  together  by 
treaty  we  can  not  only  preserve  domestic  servitude,  but  we  can  defy  the 
power  of  the  world.  With  firmness  and  judgment  ive  can  open  up  the 
African  SLAVE  EMIGRATION  again,  to  people  the  noble  region  of  the  trop 
ics..  We  can  boldly  defend  this  upon  the  most  enlarged  si  stem  of  phi 
lanthropy. 

*         *  *         The  time  is  coming  when  we  will  boldly  de 

fend  this  emigration  before  the  world.  The  hypocritical  cant  and 
whining  morality  of  the  latter-day  saints  will  die  away  before  the  maj 
esty  of  commerce  and  the  power  of  those  vast  productions  which  are 
to  spring  from  the  cultivation  and  full  development  of  the  mighty 
tropical  regions  in  our  own  hemisphere.  If  it  be  a  mercy  to  give  the 
grain-growing  sections  of  America  to  the  poor  and  hungry  of  Europe, 
why  not  open  up  the  tropics  to  the  poor  African  1 

We  have  been  too  long  governed  by  psalm-singing  school-masters  from 
the  North.  It  is  time  to  think  for  ourselves.  The  folly  commenced 
in  our  own  Government  uniting  with  Great  Britain  to  declare  slave- 
importation  piracy.  *  And  we  have  ever  since 
by  a  joint  fleet  with  Great  Britain  on  the  coast  of  Africa  been  strug 
gling  to  enforce  this  miserable  blunder.  *  *  *  If  the 
slave-holding  race  in  these  States  are  but  true  to  themselves,  they  have 
a  great  destiny  before  them." 

Bake-Pan  ?  say  rather  an  Oven,  broad  as  the  cope  of  heaven  ! 
for  is  not  this  enough  to  blister  the  face   of  all  Christendom  ? 


47 

Yes,  you  must  have  room — but,  for  your  "hypocritical  cant"  of 
philanthropy  to  the  slave — to  enclose  him  is,  by  the  very  laws 
of  population,  to  insure  his  freedom. 

Go  then,  infest  the  swamps  of  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco, 
fit  localities  ;  and  we  will  take  care  that  the  line  of  freedom  shall 
follow  you.  But  for  the  Islands — ask  leave  of  Christendom,  and 
the  North. 

Room,  out  of  pure  philanthropy  to  the  slave,  you  must  have; 
but  if  he  makes  room  by  "migration"  to  the  North,  heaven  and 
earth  are  to  be  moved  until  you  crowd  him  back  again  ;  and  if 
your  "police  at  their  peril"  do  not  forthwith  run  him  down  and 
restore  him,  at  once  re-echoes  the  original  South  Carolina  howl 
of  secession  "  making  night  hideous"  and  frighting  the  late 
doughy  North  "  from  its  propriety."  Look  you,  "  brothers  of  the 
whip,"  in  Article  IY  Section  2  of  the  Constitution  are  several 
clauses,  one  of  which  enacts  that — "  The  citizens  of  each  State 
shall  be  entitled  to  all  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens, 
in  the  several  States";  another  enacts  that  fugitives  from  service 
or  labor  shall  be  delivered  np  on  claim  &c.  Now  would  it  not 
be  "a  wonder  in  heaven"  and  on  earth,  to  see  the  armies  of  the 
United  States  marching  with  bristling  bayonets,  to  rescue  from 
your  dungeons  or  from  being  sold  into  slavery,  men  as  fully  en 
titled  under  the  Constitution,  "  to  all  privileges  and  immunities 
of  citizens1'  as  the  tallest  of  your  "dominant  race"?  and  would 
it  not  be  a  still  greater  wonder  to  see  you  obeying  in  good  faith 
the  above  recited  first  clause  of  Section  2  of  article  IV  of  the 
Constitution  ? 

Would  it  not  be  well  that  you  should  cease  from  the  most 
outrageous  violations  of  sacred  personal  rights,  and  immunities 
of  both  black  men  and  white — (imprisoning  and  enslaving  the 
one;  and  lynching  and  shooting  the  other  with  impunity) — 
guarantied  by  the  Constitution ;  before  you  rant  and  rave  so 
alarmingly  at  what  you  call  being  cheated  out  of  what  you  call 
your  property  ?  yes,  cheated  you  are,  out  of  your  property — your 
"internal  domestic  affairs"  interfered  with — the  members  of 
your  family,  your  very  children  seduced  to  leave  you.  True, 
they  soon  become  homesick,  pine  for  the  plantations  ;  but  they 
cannot  get  back,  they  are  too  poor  to  go,  arid  besides,  the  fana 
tics  wont  let  them.  Allow  me  respectfully  to  suggest  to  the 


48 

South — the  South  is  benevolent  in  home  charities,  if  not  in  for 
eign — the  formation  of  Fugitives'  (from  freedom)  Aid  Societies, 
the  generous  purpose  of  which  shall  be  to  furnish  pecuniary  as 
sistance  to  poor  people  desirous  to  escape  from  freedom.  Send 
on  your  agents  to  every  northern  city ;  they  shall  neither  be 
lynched  nor  otherwise  shot,  as  a  warning  to  others.  The  fugi 
tives  from  freedom,  with  such  aid  and  advice,  can  escape  from 
the  fanatics  who  are  starving  them,  as  they  did  from  their  mas 
ters  who  gave  them  a  peck  of  corn  a  week.  So,  by  the  showing' 
of  the  South  itself,  shall  their  fugitives  from  labor  hasten  home, 
at  much  less  expense  to  their  owners  than  by  the  present  meth 
od — so,  in  a  way  satisfactory  to  all  parties,  shall  the  fugitive 
slave  law  become  a  dead  letter — so  shall  the  Union  be  saved. 

Seventh. — "The  South  is  excluded  from  the  territories."  The 
South  is  robbed  of  her  share  of  what  was  acquired  by  the  com 
mon  blood  and  treasure.  What  injustice  !  inflicted  too,  upon  the 
North  as  well  as  the  South  !  For,  can  Massachusetts  go  into 
the  territories  ?  Can  New  York  ?  Can  any  Northern  State  ? 
No.  Then  why  should  Virginia  or  even  South  Carolina  herself, 
who  is  a  slave-driver  "by  right  divine  "  wherever  she  is  1  Mr. 
Smith  and  all  his  neighbors  may  go  into  the  territories  from  any 
one  or  every  one  of  the  northern  States  ;  but  can  they  carry  with 
them  the  peculiar  legislation  of  the  State  or  States  from  which 
they  migrated  ?  So  the  Hon.  R.  M.  T.  Hunter  of  Virginia,  or 
the  Hon.  Gen.  Butler  of  South  Carolina,  may  go  into  the  terri 
tories  with  as  many  people  as  choose  to  follow  them  ;  but  why 
should  they  be  permitted  to  take  their  lex  loci,  or  custom  of  the 
vicinage,  with  them,  any  more  than  the  Smiths  ?  No  village 
lawyer  in  the  United  States,  speaking  as  such,  would  risk  his 
reputation  by  asserting  that  they  have  any  such  right.  Nothing 
but  a  politician  is  equal  to  such  an  absurdity.  Congress  legis 
lates  for  the  territories  directly  or  indirectly  ;  and  cannot,  with 
out  violating  the  Constitution,  divest  itself  of  that  function. 
Has  Congress  power  by  the  Constitution  to  initiate  and  insti 
tute  slavery  de  novo  ?  That  is  the  question,  Mr.  Douglas.  Do 
not  avoid  the  real  issue.  Do  not  blink  the  principle,  Sir,  nor 
cover  your  eyes  with  a  Non-intervention,  but  walk  up  and  look 
it  in  the  face.  Is  that  in  the  Constitution  Sir  1  Yea  or  No  ? 


49 

The  great  Expounder  is  dead,  Sir  ;  and  you  are  the   great  Re 
storer  ! — is  that  in  the  Constitution  ?     Well  Sir.  if  that  is  not  in 
the  Constitution  and  if  (by  absurd  supposition,  for  not  to  do  what 
it  commands,  is  as  much  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  as  to  do 
what   it  prohibits)  Congress  is  not  the  rightful  legislator  for  the 
territories,  but  the  people  of  the  territories  have  the  right,  uncon 
trolled  by  any  negative,  "  to  regulate  their  own  domestic  concerns 
in  their  own  way,  subject   only  to  the  Constitution  of  the  Uni 
ted  States," — "  in  obedience  to  the  Constitution," — where  do  these 
people  get  the  right  to  initiate   and  institute  slavery  de  novo  ? 
"  They  get  it  from  Almighty  God  "  !  !  !  because,  says  the   Con 
stitution, — "  The   powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by 
the  Constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  States,   are  reserved 
to  the  States  respectively,  or  to  the  people}'1      Ah  !  I  knew  you 
would  come   to  that,  Sir.      "The  distinguished   Senator  from 
Michigan  "  has  happily  expressedit,  in  bis  usual  terse  and  lacon 
ic  manner — you  could  do  no  better  than  to  adopt  his  language. 
The  freemen  then  of  the  territories  of  the  United   States   have 
the  "inalienable  right"  to  institute  slavery  therein^  and   to  in 
corporate  it  as  one  of  the  elements  of  the  organization  of  those 
"embryo  States"  and  "  they  get  it  from  Almighty  God  "  !  !  That 
you  have  asserted  a  thousand  times  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  !  !  done  up  in  "  the  great  fundamental  principle  of  self- 
government,"  and  wrapt  in  your  napkin  of  "  Non-intervention.', 
I  only  wished  you  to   say   it  in  so  many  words,  that  was   all 
Sir  ;  I  shall  not  insult  the  people  of  the  North  by  discussing  that 
point.      The  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  are 
good  enough  for  them  and  what  they  believe  to  come  from  Al 
mighty  God  ;  the  commentaries  of  its  asinine  Expounder  and 
your  opinion,  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.      These  princi 
ples  they  are  not  likely  to  exchange  at  his  and  your  bidding, 
or  the  principle  of  the  pirate  !  the  principle  of  the   highway 
man  ! 

Eighth. — The  enemies  of  "the  bill"  and  of  "  the  mere  inci 
dent  of  it" — the  blotting  out  of  the  line  of  freedom — avoid  the 
true  issue.  They  come  here  prating  of  morality,  their  mouths 
full  of  "sickly  sentimentalism,"  on  a  matter  wholly  political 
They  have  stirred  up  the  clergy,  and  awakened  fanaticism  and 
are  attempting  a  Union  of  Church  and  State.  Such  is  the  cry  and 

7 


50 

outcry  of  the  South  ;  to  which  shouts  responsive  the  whole  batch 
and  baking  of  the  wax-dough  pastry.  "  Religion  and  human 
ity  have  nothing  to  do  with  this  question"  (of  slavery).  (South 
Carolina  in  the  Federal  Convention.)  Like  sire,  like  sons  !  this 
ever  has  been  and  is,  the  true  text  for  slavery  to  preach  from. 
It  is  pregnant,  round,  compact,  full,  appropriate  and  beautifully 
consistent.  The  text  from  the  "  missionary  system  "  leads  into, 
troublesome  logic  ;  it  had  better  be  let  alone.  Indeed  it  was 
long  ago  discarded  by  the  knowing  ones.  South  Carolina  will 
perhaps  try  it  again  for  a  few  sermons,  when  she  comes  ( as  she 
is  about  to  come)  to  laud  the  philanthropy  of  reopening  the  slave- 
trade  and  to  "  defend  it  before  the  world." 

Cry  out — Church  and  State !  if  you  please,  gentlemen,  no 
body  shall  prevent  you.  But  allow  me  to  submit  that  you  are 
not  likely  to  take  much  by  that  motion.  The  people  of  the 
North,  let  me  assure  you — if  you  are  alarmed  for  our  safety- 
are  much  less  in  danger  of  being  entrapped  in  that  delusive  co 
partnership  than  you  are.  For  how  could  you  even  now  de 
fend  your  State  (of  slavery)  without  the  aid  of  the  Church  ? 
Witness  the  South  Carolina  Catechism  !  We  of  the  North 
know  right  well  the  distinction  between  Church  and  State,  arid 
mean  to  maintain  it.  But  are  we  therefore,  in  our  political  and 
civil  relations,  to  ignore  the  moral  character  of  man  ? — to  ignore 
the  existence  of  an  overruling  and  righteous  Providence  ?— to 
ignore  the  spiritual  nature  of  JUSTICE  ? — to  originate  all  civil 
and  political  rights  in  mere  Force  ? — to  legislate  for  men,  as  if 
we  were  making  rules  for  animals  ?  Is  not  all  this  as  luistates- 
manlike  as  it  is  impious  ?  and  when  half  the  continent  is 
moved  to  its  depths,  and  five  thousand  ministeisof  religicn,  ev 
ery  one  of  whom  would  sooner  cut  off  his  right  hand  than  sub 
mit  to  a  union  between  Church  and  State,  raise  their  voices 
against  an  outrageous  moral,  as  well  as  political  enormity,  do 
you  think  to  allay  the  storm,  and  smooth  the  raging  waters,  by 
your  soft  oil  of — "sickly  sentimentalism—  "poor  ignorant  fanat 
ics  "— «  nothing  but  abolitionism  "— "  Church  and  State  "  ?  Mis 
erable  Abolitionists  of  Freedom  !  Have  you  never  heard  that 
the  gods  first  infatuate  those  whom  they  mean  to  destroy  ? 

But  this  is  not  less  a  political,  than  it  is  a  moral   enormity, 
against  which  all  patriots,  as  well  as  ministers  of  the  gospel, 


51 

are  bound  to  raise  their  voices.  Among  the  ends  of  a  true  State 
are  the  physical  and  intellectual  advancement  and  improvement 
of  its  citizens — for  I  suppose  we  may  include  intellectual  good, 
without  offending  the  "no  religion  and  humanity*'  paity — that 
is  to  say  say,  wealth,  numbers  and  intelligence.  Now  in  esti 
mating  the  political  relations  and  consequences  of  slavery  in 
the  State,  we  will  leave  out  all  consideration  of  the  slaves — as 
we  always  have  left  them  out. 

In  all  political  discussions  between  the  North  and  the  South, 
in  regard  to  the  value  of  the  Union,  and  the  relative  interests  of 
the  two  parties,  the  interests,  much  more  the  rights,  of  the  third 
party  in  this  business,  have  been  as  completely  ignored  as  if 
such  third  party  had  no  existence.  Men  of  the  highest  distinc 
tion,  not  only  South,  but  North,  "  honor  Ible  men,"  yes,  and  hon 
est  on  common  occasions,  with  their  mquhs  full  of  patriotic  in 
dignation  at  the  oppressions  of  Poland  'and  the  wrongs  of  Hun 
gary  have,  in  calculating  their  mutual  profit  and  loss,  wholly 
ignored  the  existence  of  a  Nation  in  their  midst,  in  comparison 
with  whose  oppressions,  the  sum  of  the  wrongs  of  both  Poland 
and  Hungary  are  not  a  drop  in  the  bucket.  T\vo  hands  of  pi 
rates  could  not  more  coolly,  and  equitably  and  fairly  distribute 
the  common  plunder  of  a  captured  merchantman.  In  all  this 
the  North  has  been,  one  would  think,  sufficiently  abhorrent  of 
"humanity"  and  regardless  of  "  religion,"  to  satisfy  even  South 
Carolina  herself. 

But  I  beg  pardon,  "religion  and  humanity  have  nothing  to  do 
with  this  question ;  "  and  indeed  there  is  not  the  least  necessity 
to  appeal  to  them.  Its  political  bearings  and  consequences,  its 
relations  to  the  State,  are  quite  sufficient  to  settle  it  ;  and  those 
too,  determined  not  theoretically,  but  by  experiment. 

First. — In  regard  to  intelligence.  What  says  the  census  of 
1850  of  the  comparative  numbers  arid  proportions  of  the  free  na 
tive  inhabitants  who  cannot  read  and  write  in  the  free  and  in 
the  slave  States.  Let  us  look  at  a  few  of  the  figures. 

Of  free  adult  persons  of  all  colors,  natives  of  the  United 
States,  those  in  several  States  who  cannot  read  arid  write,  are 
in  the  following  proportions  :  In 

(  Vermont,    cannot    read    and    write,  1      in  455 

I  North  Carolina,  "  "  1       "       7 


52 

(  Massachusetts,  "  «  1       «  444 

(  Virginia,  «  "  1       «     n 

(  New  Hampshire,  "  «  1  «  321 

?  Georgia.  "  "  1  «     13 

$  Connecticut,  «  «  1  «  255 

I  South  Carolina,  "  1  «     17 

$  Maine,  "  «  1       «  254 

I  Maryland  "  "  1       «     12 

J  Rhode  Island,  "  "  1       «  100 

?  Delaware,  "  «  1       "       8 

This  result,  contrast  we  may  call  it,  is  sufficiently  striking. 
And  the  comparison  is  fair,  being  between  States  of  essentially 
the  same  age,  in  numbers  not  much  unlike,  and  nearly  equally 
free  from  foreign  influences. 

There  is  another  cal  ious  fact  comes  to  light  from  the  Census, 
in  regard  to  the  colorti*  people,  natives  of  the  United  States,  in 
these  same  free  States ;  these  same  free  negroes,  who,  as  the 
South  assures  mankind,  are  the  most  degraded  arid  miserable 
wretches  on  earth,  longing  to  get  back  to  slavery.  On  compar 
ison  of  these  same  free  negroes  in  the  six  free  States  above 
named,  taken  together,  with  the  whole  free  population  of  the 
above  six  slave  States,  the  result  is  found  to  be  the  following  : 

Of  negroes  in  six  free  States  who  cannot  read  and  write, 
there  is  1  in  12.  Of  the  whole  free  population  in  six  slave 
States  who  cannot  read  and  write,  there  is  1  in  11.  Put  that  in 
your  pipes  and  smoke  it.  ye  "  well-educated  aristocrats."  How 
ever,  the  true  badge  of  the  "  well-bred  "  aristocracy  is  the  whip 
and  not  the  pen. 

Lo !  the  "Roman  Masters"  we  have  chosen  for  ourselves, 
dough-faces  and  "degenerate  Greeks."  more  ignorant  with  all 
their  "  ample  leisure,"  than  northern  negroes  ! ! ! 

Lo  !  "  the  impersonation  of  the  well-educated  aristocrat "  ! 
But  can  such  statistics  give  any  adequate  idea  of  the  incredi 
ble  intellectual  condition  of  the  crackers,  sandhillers,  and  other 
"poor  white  folks,"  not  only,  but  of  many  rich  planters,  at  the 
South,  in  comparison  with  the  reading,  thinking,  intelligent,  na 
tive  yeomanry  of  the  North  ?  Not  at  all. 

Second.  In  regard  to  numbers.  Of  the  original  thirteen 
States,  six  remain  slave  States,  with  an  area  of  more  than  two 
hundred  thousand  square  miles.  The  old  free  States,  now  be- 


53 

come  nine,  contain  an  extent  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
square  miles.  These  six  slave  States  have  a  finer  and.  on 
the  whole,  more  healthful  climate,  greater  variety  of  produc 
tions,  a  richer  soil,  less  waste  land,  and  one  quarter  more  of  sur 
face  than  the  nine  free  States.  In  1790,  these  slave  States  had 
a  population  of  1,908,000 ;  these  free  States  a  population  of 
1,848,000.  In  the  meantime  the  free  States  have  furnished  a 
much  larger  number  of  inhabitants  for  the  new  States  than  the 
slave  States,  more  than  enough  to  counterbalance  the  excess  of 
foreign  immigration  into  the  free  States,and  yet,in  1850,the  pop 
ulation  of  these  free  States  was  8,314,714 ;  of  these  same  slave 
States  it  was  4,539,635. 

Third.  In  regard  to  wealth.  Compare  Virginia  with  New 
York.  Virginia  has  a  quarter  more  of  surface,  a  better  climate, 
more  valuable  productions,  a  richer  soil,  better  harbors,  equal 
water-power,  as  valuable  mines,  a  more  favorable  locality,  and 
by  natural  position  and  advantages  should  be  the  agricultural, 
manufacturing  and  commercial  centre  of  the  Union.  In  1790, 
Virginia  had  free  white  inhabitants,  442,000 ;  New  York  had 
314,000.  Now  Virginia  has  free  white  inhabitants.  894,000  ; 
New  York  has  3,048,000.  The  population  of  Norfolk,  the 
Port  of  Virginia,  having  one  of  the  finest  harbors  on  the  conti 
nent,  is  14,000  ;  that  of  New  York  is  more  than  500,000.  The 
value  of  land  in  Virginia  is  something  over  eight  dollars  per 
acre ;  in  New  York,  twenty-nine  dollars.  The  value  of  live 
stock  in  Virginia  in  1850  was,  in  round  numbers,  thirty-three 
and  a  half  millions ;  in  New  York  seventy-three  and  a  half 
millions;  number  of  houses  in  Virginia  166.000;  in  New  York 
474,000.  In  commerce,  manufactures  and  mining,  the  contrast 
would  be  still  greater. 

Not  long  since  (1832)  the  Richmond  (Va.)  Enquirer,  which 
now  talks  of  "  degenerate  Greeks,"  "pimps  and  pedlers,"  quoted 
the  words  of,  as  it  called  him,  "  an  eloquent  South  Carolinian, 
on  his  return  from  the  North,"  as  follows  : 

"  We  may  shut  our  eyes  and  avert  our  faces,  if  we  please,  but  there 
it  is,  the  dark  and  growing  evil  at  our  doors  ;  and  meet  the  question 
we  must,  at  no  distant  day.  God  only  knows  what  it  is  the  part  of 
wise  men  to  do  on  this  momentous  and  appalling  subject.  (Oh  !  ex- 


54 

tend  the  "  God's  institution  "  by  all  means,  so  that  even  the  North  will 
not  have  to  "  curse  heaven  that  it  was  not  blessed  with  African  slave 
ry  ! ")  Of  this  I  am  very  sure,  that  the  difference nothing 

short  of  frightful between  all  that  exists  on  one  side  of  the  Poto 
mac  and  all  on  the  other,  is  owing  to  that  cause  alone.  The  disease  is 
deep-seated — it  is  at  the  heart's  core — it  is  consuming,  and  has,  all 
along,  been  consuming  our  vitals." 

This  is  tolerably  strong.  And  as  it  comes  from  a  South  Caro 
linian  and  is  endorsed  by  the  Richmond  (Va.)  Enquirer,  it 
must  be  supposed  to  be  pretty  reliable.  Whereas  the  North 
knows  nothing  of  such  matters.  When  Northern  men  visit  the 
"other  side'3  of  the  Potomac  and  behold  whole  regions  of  natur 
ally  excellent  land,  and  which  they  would  have  made  into  per 
ennial  gardens,  reduced  to  utter  desolation  and  barrenness ;  and 
see  the  dwellings  of  the  country  resembling  the  house  of  the 
sluggard  or  the  hut  of  the  Hottentot ;  what  right  have  they  to 
say  that  slavery  makes  the  "  dominant  race"  incurably  improvi 
dent  and  indolent,  and  the  subject  race  irretrievably  lazy  and  in 
efficient  ?  They  are  not  capable  of  forming  any  correct  opin 
ions  on  the  subject  of  slavery.  However,  it  is  plain  enough, 
from  Southern  testimony  alone,  that  Virginia  has  yielded  the 
sceptre  which  was  hers  by  birth-right  and  every  other  natural 
right  and  for oh  !  name  it  not. 

A  comparison  of  other  States  would  prove  decidedly,  if  not 
equally,  unfavorable  for  the  South  in  wealth,  as  in  numbers  and 
intelligence.  And  these  differences  are  not  accidental  but — as  all 
the  world  knows  and  as  even  the  South  used  to  confess  and  be 
wail — inherent  in  and  inseparable  from  the  system  of  slavery. 
The  comparison  of  agricultural  products  alone,  would  prove  less 
unfavorable  to  the  South,  because  all  its  labor  is  applied  to  ag 
riculture,  being  competent  to  nothing  else,  and  that  only  in  the 
coarsest  and  most  slovenly  manner. 

Fourth.  But  there  is  another  primary  consideration,  never 
for  a  moment  to  be  lost  sight  of  in  estimating  the  well-being  of 
a  State.  And  that  is,  its  power  of  self-defence,  its  power  of  re 
sistance  to  enemies,  within  or  without.  Need  a  word  be  said 
on  this  point?  does  not  the  Sonth  know  as  well  as  the  rest  of 
the  world  that,  in  regard  to  defence  against  enemies  from  with- 


55 

out,  in  regard  to  physical  power,  at  least  in  a  contest  with  the 
North,  it  is  weak  as  infancy  ?  Hence  its  desperate  struggles  to 
retain  and  increase  its  political  power.  Is  slavery  in  a  State  fa 
vorable  to  its  internal  self-defence?  And  here  too,  let  us  have 
Southern  testimony  ;  because  th -•  North  knows  nothing  of  the 
matter.  Read  the  debates  on  emancipation  in  the  legislature 
of  Virginia,  after  the  Southampton  insurrection  ;  when  the  now 
boastful  Virginia  shook  in  her  shoes  at  the  very  name  of  Nat 
Turner,  worse  than  did  the  King  of  England  at  that  of  Jack 
Cade.  Not,  as  one  gentlemen  said,  that  she  was  afraid  of  Nat 
Turner — "  No  sir  ;  it  was  the  suspicio?i  eternally  attached  TO 
THE  SLAVE  HIMSELF — the  suspicion  that  a  Nat  Turner  might 
be  in  every  family  ;  that  the  same  bloody  deed  could  be  acted 
over  at  any  time  and  in  any  place  ;  that  the  materials  for  it 
were  spread  through  the  land  and  always  ready  for  a  like  ex 
plosion"  In  this  debate  can  be  found  heavier  accusations 
against  slavery  than  all  the  abolitionists  of  the  North  can  bring. 
Because  the  honorable  gentlemen  spoke  from  personal  observa 
tion,  and  just  then  they  spoke  feelingly  and  with  a  "  realizing 
sense  "  of  its  true  nature. 

MR.  CHANDLER.  "  But  sir,  will  this  evil — this  curse — not  increase  1 
Will  not  the  life,  liberty,  prosperity,  happiness  and  safety  of  those  who 
may  come  after  us,  be  endangered,  in  a  still  greater  degree,  by  it  ? 
How  then,  can  we  reconcile  it  to  ourselves,  to  fasten  this  upon  them  ? 
Do  we  not  endanger  our  very  national  existence  by  entailing  slavery 
upon  them  ?" 

MR.  MOORE.  "  I  think  that  slavery,  as  it  exists  among  us,  may  be 
regarded  as  the  heaviest  calamity  which  has  ever  befallen  any  portion 
of  the  human  race." 

MR.  BOLLING,  "  The  time  will  come — and  it  may  be  sooner  than 
many  are  willing  to  believe — when  this  oppressed  and  degraded  race 
cannot  be  held  as  they  now  are — when  a  change  will  be  effected  by 
means  abhorrent,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  you,  and  to  the  feelings  of  every 
good  man." 

MR.  BERRY.  "  Sir,  I  believe  that  no  cancer  on  the  physical  body 
was  ever  more  certain,  steady  and  fatal  in  its  progress,  than  is  this 
cancer  on  the  political  body  of  the  State  of  Virginia.  It  is  eating  into 
her  very  vitals,  and  shall  we  admit  that  the  evil  is  past  remedy  ?" 


56 

Yes,  you  did  admit  it.  Your  mountain  brought  forth  a  mouse, 
and  you  christened  it — "  Impossible  "  ! !  Now.  however,  having 
emboweled  and  forgotten  Nat  Turner,  you  have  opened  another 
stop  in  your  slavery-resounding  organ,  and  it  peals  another 
strain.  Now  South  Carolina  gives  the  key-note,  Virginia  plays 
second,  tbe  whole  South  joins  in  chorus,  and  thus  runs  the  An 
them.  It  is  the  birth-right  of  freemen — A  great  missionary  sys 
tem— We  will  have  Cuba — It  is  God's  Institution — The  North 
will  yet  curse  heaven  ;  that  it  did  not  get  the  blessing — A  great 
destiny  is  before  us — To  prohibit  the  slave-trade  ;  to  declare  it 
piracy  ;  what  a  miserable  blunder "  !  !  what  a  "  miserable  blun 
der  !  !  !  Oh  !  how  invariably  and  unavoidably  all  cowards 
brag  ;  just  as  little  dogs  are  given  to  yelping. 

But  no  quantity  of  southern  bluster,  nor  any  amount  of  hypocrit 
ical  eulogy  of  slavery,  can  make  it  any  the  less,  in  its  political 
relations,  a  "deadly  poison,"  a  "withering  blight,"  a  "curse  of 
heaven,"  an  "  appalling  subject"  a  "fatal  cancer,  eating  into  the 
very  vitals"  of  the  State  that  tolerates  it  ;  (to  use  the  strong 
and  appropriate  language  of  southern  men)  or  conceal  from 
southern  men  themselves,  the  black  and  portentous  future  which 
is  to  come  out  of  it  upon  the  heads  of  their  children  and  which, 
instead  of  resolving  with  manly  energy  to  avert,  they  are  only 
attempting,  like  other  imbecile  people,  to  defer,  by  means  which 
shall  make  the  ruin  more  wide-spread  and  dreadful  when  it, 
at  length,  inevitably  comes,  Need  patriotic  men,  need  manly 
men,  to  be  told  that  such  an  accursed  thing  is  also  wicked? 

If  there  was  no  God  in  Heaven,  and  men  were  incapable  of 
moral  accountability  ;  if  right  meant  only  "  profitable"  which  is 
the  highest  conception  of  some  minds  ;  is  this  politically  accursed 
poison  of  slavery  an  ingredient  to  be  infused  into  the  life-blood 
of  new-born  States?  are  the  political  consequences,  necessarily 
involved  in  slavery,  an  inheritance  for  us  to  bequeath  to  our 
children  ?  The  South  will,  as  it  ever  has  done,  continue  to  play 
the  sluggard — "  a  little  more  sleep,  a  little  more  slumber" — and 
sacrifice  the  future  to  the  present  ;  the  good  of  their  children  to 
their  own  sloth  and  self-enjoyment;  but  is  there  any  reason  why  we 
should  inflict  this  last  of  earthly  curses  upon  our  children  and  our 
future,  by  permitting  the  whole  national  domain  to  be  contamin 
ated  by  it  ?  Even  if  our  children  were  infatuated  enough  to 


57 

choose  this  miserable  portion,  and  if  they  had  a  right  to  choose  it, 
which  they  have  not  either  morally  or  politically,  except  the  right 
of  the  strongest,  the  right  of  the  robber — every  man  ought  to  say 
in  the  words  of  Luther  Martin,  "  I  hold  it  sacredly  my  duty  to 
dash  the  cup  of  poison,  if  possible,  from  the  hand  of  a  State,  or  an 
individual,  however  anxious  the  one  or  the  other  might  be  to 
swallow  it."  (Secret  Proceedings  and  Debates  of  the  Conven 
tion,  1787.) 

]\inth. — But  the  South  has  another  argument  in  reserve — the 
grand  "  ultimate  appeal"  and  knock-down  argument,  which, 
since  it  was  first  used  by  South  Carolina  in  the  Federal  Con 
vention,  to  the  present  hour,  has  hitherto  never  been  known  to 
fail  ;  to  wit — "  The  South  will  secede  "  !  If  the  North  dares  to 
move  in  the  matter  of  restoring  the  line  of  freedom  or  otherwise 
to  restrain  or  to  repress  the  advance  of  the  slave-power,  in  what 
ever  direction  it  chooses  to  go  ;  or  to  manifest  other  than  the 
disposition  of  "degenerate  Greeks" — the  South  will  secede  and 
leave  the  North  to  its  own  destruction.  Oh,  chivalroue  South  ! 
Oh,  brave  "  migration  "  from  Gascony  !  The  South  will  secede, 
it  will  !  then,  without  the  aid  of  fugitive  slave  laws  "  shall  its 
property  be  protected  quite  up  to  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  "  and 
the  dough-faces  "  shall  be  a  police  at  their  peril  to  prevent  the 
escape  of  its  slaves  "  !  Oh,  braver  than  Hector  !  six  millions 
against  fifteen  !  an  enemy  in  your  citadel  !  every  third  man  in 
your  population  a  dog  at  your  throat,  so  soon  as  the  disbanding 
of  the  present  dough-face  police  shall  give  him  courage  to  seize 
it !  No  wonder  the  North  has  behaved  like  a  whipt  spaniel  with 
his  tail  between  his  legs  !  Ah  !  self-complacent  South  !  "  well 
born  aristocrats  " !  if  it  should  turn  out  that  it  was  the  generous 
mastiff  feigning  fear  at  the  yelpings  of  the  village  cur  !  it  may 
be  prudent  to  remember  that  even  the  mastiff  does  not  well  bear 
a  bite. 

Such  is  the  argument  for  the  establishment — or  re-establish 
ment,  as  we  are  expected  to  believe — of  the  "  great  fundamental 
principle  of  self-government"  the  principle  of  governing  one's 
self — alias,  the  principle  of  enslaving  others  !  Such  is  the  impreg 
nable  wall  of  pro-slavery  logic,  against  which  the  chafed  waters 
of  Freedom  dash  in  vain,  only  to  fall  back  in  impotent  foam  ! 

8 


58 

Such  is  the  wall  and  such  the  rabble  (or  stubble)  with  which  it 
is  filled  and  chinked  and  carried  up  to  its  completion  and  Crown 

— the  chevaux  defrise  of  SECESSION. 

Free  men  of  the  North,  and  who  being  free  and  rejoicing  in 
your  freedom,  hold  it  not  less  an  intolerable  shame  than  a  damn 
ing  sin  (were  it  possible  to  sin  politically  !)  to  claim  at  the  same 
time  with  this  freedom,  the  inherent  right  to  make  slaves  of  your 
neighbors ;  democrats,  after  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  after  the  principles  of  Jefferson,  the  author  of  that 
Declaration  :  honest  men.  who  eat  bread  the  product  of  your  own 
labor ;  do  our  ears  bear  well  the  assertion  that  to  interfere  with 
the  purposa  of  men  legitimately  under  our  political  govern 
ment  and  control — to  interfere  with  their  purpose  to  institute 
anew  and  perpetuate  hereditary  slavery,  with  all  its  unutterable 
moral,  social  and  political  horrors — that,  to  interfere  with  this 
purpose  is  "  oppression  "/  /  and  a  violation  of  the  "  most  sacred 
rights  of  man"  !  !  that,  this  interference  is  to  act  precisely  as  did 
the  British  King  in  oppressing  our  fathers  of  the  Revolution  ? 
If  the  whole  slave  population  of  the  South  should  rise  against 
their  tyrants,  would  not  the  case  be  perfectly  parallel  to  that  of 
our  fathers;  except  that  the  slaves  have  ten  thousand-fold  more 
reason  for  rebellion  than  our  fathers  had  ?  and  are  we  to  be  told 
that,  if  we  interfere  to  prevent  the  subjection  of  as  many  men 
more  to  the  same  horrors  of  slavery,  in  regions  now  free  from 
that  unspeakable  curse,  that  we  are  oppressing  !  those  who  pur 
pose  to  do  so;  that  we  are  violating  their  most  sacred  rights  ;  that 
we  are  outraging  the  principles  of  die  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  :  that  we  are  repeating  the  tyranny  of  the  British  King  ?— 
Yes,  freemenof  the  North,  we  have  been  told  this — we  are  requir 
ed,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  to  believe  this,  and  to  adopt  it 
into  our  creed  !  !  This  has  been  asserted  and  reiterated,  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  !  wrapt  in  fair  phrases,  stolen  from 
the  vocabulary  of  patriotic  and  honorable  men.  In  order  to 
this,  "  as  a  mere  incident"  of  this,  it  became  necessary  to  blot 
out  the  line  of  freedom,  and  to  take  quite  away  its  land-marks. 
This,  with  a  legerdelingo  of  sophistry  liable  to  impose  upon  the 
understanding  of  a  Hottentot,  is  offered  to  ws,  reading  and  think 
ing  men  of  the  North,  and  who  are  neither  pirates  nor  plunder 
ers  !  Are  there  any  dough-faces  of  the  softest  sort  who  can  be 


59 

taken  in  by  this  talk  ?     Now  and  then  one  there  may  be  of  Mrs. 
Partington's  family. 

But  there  is  another  class  of  faces,  of  the  other  kind  of  pastry, 
of  which  John  Randolph  sneeringly  said—"  if  we  had  needed 
more  of  them,  we  should  have  had  them,  Sir."  And  was  he 
not  right  ?  and  has  not  the  South  now,  and  before  now,  got  "more 
of  them"  ?  Faces  there  are  both  in  and  out  of  Congress,  which, 
when  all  honest  and  honorable  men  of  all  parties,  brought  up  to 
pass  judgment  upon  this  Nebraska  measure  and  the  "  mere  inci 
dent  of  it"  ! !  this  direct  attack  upon  freedom  and  humanity, 
upon  the  rights  and  interests  of  the  North,  upon  the  welfare  and 
honor  of  the  nation,  cry  shame  !  and  infamy  !  I  say  when  all 
honest  and  honorable  men  cry  shame  !  and  infamy  !  upon  this 
measure,  and  "  the  incident  of  it"  these  faces,  with  trie  coolest 
impudence,  answer  us — are  you  so  green?  is  this  a  time  for 
school-boy  declamation  about  freedom  and  honor  and  humanity; 
to  talk  about  the  Declaration  of  Independance  and  such  stale, 
Fourth  of  July,  stuff?  will  you  risk  the  success  of  the  party, 
that  is,  the  danger  of  depriving  us  of  our  places  and  of  the  hopes 
of  better  ones,  for  such  vulgar  considerations  as  these  ?  Free 
men  of  the  North,  of  whatever  party,  shall  we  follow  such  men, 
for  such  men  there  are  always,  in  all  parties  ?  shall  we  be  cajoled 
of  our  interests  and  our  honor,  by  such  stinking  sophistry?  If 
we  are,  then  are  we  "  degenerate  Greeks  "  indeed  ;  worthy  the 
function  of  "  pimps  "  ;  worthy  to  be  "a  police,  at  our  peril,  to  pre 
vent  the  escape  of  slaves." 

We  have  all  been  guilty  together.  We  have  all,  for  the  sake 
of  some  present  party  interest,  or  party  pride,  or  through  dough- 
faced  good  nature  played  into  the  hands  of  the  ever  watchful 
and  crafty  slave-power.  The  democrats  have  done  so  ;  the 
whigs  have  done  so  ;  worst  of  all,  considering  their  principles,  the 
abolitionists  have  done  so,  and  are  still,  more  likely  than  any  of 
t'^e  rest  of  us  to  continue  to  do  so.  For  though  the  great  body 
01'  the  abolitionists  are  honest  and  honorable  men,  men  of  the 
right  stamp  for  the  present  emergency,  it  must  be  confessed  that 
they  have  had  and  have  foolish  leaders.  But  what  political  par 
ty  does  not  become  a  hot-bed  for  the  stinking  mushroom  growth 
of  domagogueism?  Let  us  all  beware  now  and  hereafter  of  this 


60 

deadly  bane  of  freedom.  Let  us  trust  no  man  who  sets  himself 
up  as  a  party  leader.  Party  leaders  and  party  editors,  men,  I 
mean,  who  are  ready  to  sacrifice  the  good  of  the  country  to  the 
interests  of  their  party  and  their  own,  are,  next  after  slavery,  the 
heaviest  curse  of  the  nation.  They  are  liars  by  profession,  and 
their  employment  is  to  make  dupes.  They  are  poisonous  weeds 
that  cannot  be  eradicated  from  the  soil,  but  let  us  beware  of  them. 
Not  that  all  editors  are  such,  of  all  parties  or  of  any  party. 
Many  editors,  indeed,  there  are — human  nature  were  bankrupt 
else — I  trust  there  will  be  many  more,  who  (though  strongly 
enough  partizan  on  ordinary  occasions)  scorn  all  party  allegiance 
that  cannot,  be  retained  without  such  sacrifice  of  honor  and  hon 
esty  as  the  Nebraska  leaders  demand,  that  is,  to  endorse  and  ped 
dle  in  small  doses,  their  atrocious  sophistry — to  lie  at  second 
hand — to  humbug  to  order.  But  as  there  always  have  been 
and  always  will  be  pirates  at  sea  where  plunder  is  to  be  had  ;  for 
the  same  reason  the  black  flag  is  not  likely  to  lack  its  body-guard 
of  land-lubbers  also. 

Let  us  beware  of  such   men,  whether  of  our  own  or  of  any 
other  party. 

But,  besides  poliiical  editors  who  prefer  their  party  and  their 
pockets  to  their  country,  there  are,  I  am  sorry  io  say,  a  few  men 
connected  with  the  religious  press,  against  whose  influence  in 
regard  to  the  present  subject,  we  have  need  to  bo  forewarned. 
These  are  men  against  whose  integrity — with  the  fewest  excep 
tions,  but  it  requires  a  charity  having  all  the  fifteen  genuine 
qualities  to  except  the  Journal  of  Commerce — I  have  no  dispo 
sition,  and  indeed  no  cause,  to  bring  any  accusation.  They  fol 
low  their  religion  so  zealously  and  so  far,  in  one  direction,  that 
they  quite  forget  that  it  has  jurisdiction  also  towardsother  points 
of  the  com  pass.  With  such  speed  have  they  hastened  to  ''obey 
the  King,"  that  they  have  gone  quite  out  of  sight  and  hearing  of 
the  paramount  command,  calling  after  them  from  behind,  to 
"obey  God  rather."  They  very  honestly  and  fully  adopt  the 
old  kingly  "divine  right"  theory,  and  would  have  conscien 
tiously  adjudged  their  grandfathers  to  the  gallows  for  high  trea 
son.  By  some  mistake  in  the  celestial  way-bills,  when  they 
came  down,  they  were  booked  for  the  U.  S.  A.,  instead  of  being 


61 

sent  to  Austria.  But  this  is  not  the  worst  of  it.  When  men 
willing  to  obey  both  "God  "  and  "  the  King."  attempt  the  repeal 
of  unrighteous  laws  which  they  cannot  conscientiously  obey, 
these  men  are  sure  to  throw  cold  water  upon  their  efforts,  as  if 
they  were  fond,  not  of  discipline  and  suffering  for  conscience  sake; 
but  of  disciplining  their  consciences,  of  trying  the  experiment 
of  how  much  they  can  be  made  to  suffer  without  rebellion. 

That  any  man  who  has  reason  or  piety  enough  to  apprehend 
the  Christianity  of  the  New  Testament  in  its  true  idea,  as  a  sys 
tem  of  all- pervading  principles,  in  distinction  from  a  collection 
of  rules  of  conduct — principles,  acting  not  directly  from  without 
to  alter  men  or  States,  but  from  within,  evolving  their  own  rules, 
and  giving  aim  and  purpose,  and  character  and  law,  to  all  hu 
man  relations — I  say,  that  such  a  man  should  believe  African 
Slavery  compatible  with  Christianity  is  an  impossible  supposi 
tion.  Of  the  very  few  men  of  whom  I  have  heen  speaking,  who 
believe  this,  or  rather  who  do  not  see  clearly  why  they  should 
not  believe  it,  it  must  be  supposed  that  they  have  an  inadequate 
apprehension  of  Christianity  ;  or  else  the  most  plenary  Charity, 
lacking  not  one  of  its  fifteen  graces,  could  find  no  apology  for 
them. 

For  the  Southern  religious  and  other  editors,  and  Southern 
Christians,  many  of  whom  (I  will  not  say  most,  for  i  trust  in  Heav 
en  it  is  not  so)  do  sincerely  helieve  in  this  "  divine  right  "  rela 
tion  of  Slavery  to  Christianity,  I  fear  the  explanation  must  be 
different.  One  cannot  read  their  arguments  in  defence  of  their 
doctrines  without  supposing  that  they,  many  of  them  at  least, 
corne  under  the  category  of  those  upon  whom  has  been  sent 
"  strong  delusion,"  that  they  may  believe  their  own  chosen  LIE. 
I  trust  however,  that  Southern  sophistry  has  forever  lost  its  pow 
er  on  this  side  of  the  late  line  of  freedom,  except  it  be  over  the 
Journal  of  Commerce. 

There  is  still  another  class  of  man  of  whose  influence  some 
few  of  us  have  need  to  be  watchful  in  regard  to  the  question  of 
slavery.  There  are  foreign  editors  among  us.  And,  unhappi 
ly  for  themselves  and  their  former  fellow-countrymen,  though 
fleeing  from  oppression  themselves,  their  pretended  love  of  free 
dom  is  but  a  lust  of  enslaving  others.  But  let  them  be  assured 
and  those  also  whani  they  are  leading  astray,  that  the  American 


62 

people,  that  American  parties,  on  whatever  subjects  thev  may  be 
divided,  will  not  long  tolerate  a  third  foreign  party,  an  Euro 
pean  party,  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  between  them  for  its 
own  benefit,  and  for  the  benefit  of  its  transmarine  dictators.  Not 
at  all  !  Cousins!  you  are  welcome  so  long  as  you  behave  your 
selves  as  guests  and  conform  to  the  rules  of  the  family.  But 
you  must  not  think  to  bring  here  your  lex  loci,  as  the  South  pro 
poses  to  go  into  the  territories. 

Let  the  great  body  of  the  foreign  population,  then,  which  is 
especially  subject  to  such  influences,  beware  of  demagogues 
whether  foreign  or  American.  They  will  but  cheat  you  with 
some  present  promises  to  your  ultimate  ruin. 

Let  us  all,  as  one  people,  beware  of  our  various  seducers.  Let 
mere  partizans  sacrifice  their  principles — if  they  had  any — to 
their  interests.  We,  who  are  neither  office-holders  nor  office-seek 
ers,  we,  the  great  body  politic,  can  have  no  political  interests  sepa- 
ate  from  the  common  good  and  permanent  interests,  of  our  com 
mon  country. 

Let  us  follow  the  promptings  ot  our  own  principles  and  feelings 
and — always  excepting  many  office-holders  and  many  more 
office-seekers — there  are  not,  on  the  north  side  of  the  late  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line,  three  thousand  voters  who  would  not  vote  right 
in  regard  to  that  line  and  on  most  other  subjects  relating  to  sla 
very.  But  we  have  all  by  means  of  lies  and  false  leaders,  played 
into  the  hands  of  the  South. 

And  now  behold  the  result !  The  South  not  only  ridicules 
our  pretensions  to  moral  principle  and  heaps  upon  us  every  most 
insulting  epithet  expressive  of  baseness  and  cowardice ;  but? 
suiting  the  action  to  the  word,  puts  forth  its  hand  to  grasp  all 
political  power,  and  says,  restrain  me  "at  your  peril." 

Time  was,  not  long  since,  when  the  South  spoke  modestly 
enough  of  slavery.  It  was  their  misfortune,  their  weakness, 
their  curse,  but  inflicted  upon  them  by  others.  It  was,  however, 
their  business  to  manage  it,  it  was  their  peculiar  institution,  the 
North  had  no  right  to  meddle  with  their  local  customs.  To  all 
this,  the  North  with  one  consent,  assented.  For  the  abolitionists 
were  less  than  a  handful,  and  these  were  cried  down,  hissed 
down,  put  down,  knocked  down,  yes,  and  shot  down.  We  de 
fended  the  national  consistency  and  honor  before  the  world,  by 


63 

asserting  and  proving  that  slavery  existed  by  a  mere  lex  loci 
coutume  du  pays,  or  custom  of  the  vicinage,  over  which  the 
national  government  could  have  no  control.  We  apologized  for 
the  South,  as  for  men  ready  to  put  away  the  evil  as  fast  as  pos 
sible,  and  as  doing  as  well  as  they  could  under  the  circum 
stances. 

But  now,  "slavery  is  neither  a  moral,  social,  nor  political 
evil."  "It  is  God's  institution."  It  is  a  grand  missionary  scheme 
by  which  the  heathen  are  enabled  to  "  work  out  their  own  salv 
ation  " — by  the  aid  of  South  Carolina  Catechisms  on  work  " — 
all  the  free  territories  of  the  Union  are  to  be  opened  to  this  "  God's 
Institution  ;"  the  West  India  Islands  are  to  be  taken  possession 
of,  out  of  pure  compassion,  and  to  make  homes  for  the  lately 
neglected  children  of  Africa ;  the  slave-trade,  the  prohibition  of 
which  and  the  declaring  it  piracy  was  a  "miserable  blunder," 
is  to  be  reopened  and  defended  before  the  world  ;  The  United 
States  of  America,  a  name  the  sound  of  which  once  stirred  the 
hopes  and  quickened  the  pulse  of  freedom  in  all  nations,  The 
United  States  of  America  is  to  become  a  grand  slavery  "propa 
ganda,"  with  a  division  of  labor,  the  South  to  do  the  missionary- 
ing  and  the  North  to  do  the  Police ;  and  the  national  banner  is 
no. longer  to  bear  the  eagle  "  towering  in  pride  of  place  "  among 
the  stars,  but  is  to  be  emblazoned  "  noir"  with  a  slave-coffle 
in  the  centre,  and  the  margin  of  the  shield  appropriately  adorn 
ed  with  wreaths  of smoke  from  the  Pit. 

Freemen  of  the  North,  shall  we  permit  these  schemes  to  be 
consummated?  Shall  we  permit  our  country,  now  illustrious 
among  all  nations,  the  hope  of  the  oppressed,  to  become  a  bye- 
word,  a  thing  for  scorn  to  point  the  finger  at  ?  a  name  for  ancient 
despotism  to  rejoice  at  the  sound  of;  and  for  freedom  to  hide  its 
head  in  shame  and  despair  ? 

Shall  we  permit  ourselves  to  be  politically  enslaved  under  a 
despotism  which  has  shown  itself  as  faithless  with  its  neighbors, 
as  it  is  tyrannical  over  its  slaves  ?  Oh  !  the  Missouri  act  was  no 
thing  but  a  repealable  law  of  Congress  !  yes,  but  could  any  King 
of  England  have  thus  removed  a  land-mark  of  freedom,  though 
not  of  record  at  all,  without  endangering  both  his  crown  and  his 
head?  Shall  we  make  true  the  slanders  of  English  toadies, 


64 

that  the  Saxon  race  degenerates  in  America?  Let  us  give  the 
South  the  benefit  of  the  legal  quibble  (John  Doe  Statesmen  that 
they  are,)  that  henceforth  we  may  know  that  our  intercourse 
with  them  is  to  stand  upon  quibble  and  not  upon  HONOR.  Has 
not  the  South  more  than  justified  the  very  worst  accusations  of 
the  abolitionists  and  compelled  us,  their  apologists,  to  eat  our 
own  ivords  of  soft  extenuation  ?  Shall  we  put  not  only  our  hon 
or  and  the  honor  of  our  country,  but  our  interests  and  rights  into 
the  hands  of  the  South  ?  While  the  people  of  the  North  can  go 
into  the  territories  only  under  the  regulations  of  Congress,  which 
can  never  u  legislate  slavery  into  the  territories  ;"  shall  the  Sou'h 
take  along  with  it  its  accursed  "lex  loci"?  which  can  never  ori 
ginate  there,  because  "it  amounts  to  the  creation  of  a  new  cus 
tom  which  is  now  impossible."  (Blackstone.)  Shall  the  North— 
"degenerate  Greeks" — yield  to  the  South,  "their  Roman  Mas 
ters,"  not  only  the  territories,  hut,  with  them,  all  control  over  its 
own  interests  of  agriculture,  of  commerce,  and  of  manufac 
tures? 

Freemen  of  the  North,  if  we  are  not  ready  thus  to  yield  the 
keeping  of  our  own  interests  and  honor  ;  if  we  are  not  ready  to 
ridicule  and  renounce  the  principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  ;  if  we  are  not  ready  to  inaugurate  the  wretched,  infa 
mous,  local  c^^s/G^1?i^i«lavery,  as  the  national  badge  and  em 
blazon  it  on  the  national  banner ;  if  we  are  not  ready  to  hear  it 
demanded  of  Congress  to  repeal  the  prohibition  of  the  African 
slave-trade;  if  we  are  not  ready  to  see  upon  the  records  of  Con 
gress — "  Resolved,  that  to  declare  the  slave-trade  piracy,' was 
foolish  fanaticism  and  'a  miserable  blunder';5'  if  we  are  not 
ready  to  become  "  pimps"  and  panders  to  all  this,  and  to  con 
stitute  ourselves  a  perpetual  "police  at  our  peril,  to  prevent  the 
escape  of  slaves;" — men  of  the  North,  if  we  are  not  ready  for 
all  this,  let  the  North  now  speak;  now  at  length  let  the  North 
speak,  the  North— it  is  theslaveholding  "Unit"  which  compels 
to  this  geographical  designation — now  at  length  let  the  North 
speak,  or  hereafter/ore^er  hold  its  peace. 


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